Gujarat: 55 AAP workers released from jail

The 55 AAP workers were among the 93 people arrested by the Gandhinagar Police on December 20 for protesting outside the BJP headquarters ‘Shree Kamalam’ over the alleged leak of a question paper of head clerk recruitment examination. On Thursday, a sessions court in Gandhinagar granted conditional bail to the AAP workers, and one of the conditions is that they will not enter the Gandhinagar city.

Among those jailed were 10 college students aged between 18 to 22 years who were part of AAP’s student and youth wings. They claimed that this was the first time they had seen the insides of a prison.

Holding a tricolour in his hands, 18-year-old Anmol Vaghasiya, a student of computer applications at Lokmanya Group of Colleges, who was the youngest among all jailed workers, walked out of the Sabarmati Central Jail Friday morning.

“The manner in which I was put in jail and booked under 22 criminal sections has only increased my resolve to support my party against the draconian regime of the BJP. We will do more such agitations in future if need arises,” Vaghasiya said.

“In jail, all 55 of us were divided into two barracks where we stayed for 11 days. We read books in Gujarati, participated in debate competitions among ourselves and played cricket to kill time. Our leader Gopal Italia (party’s Gujarat president) kept encouraging us saying that we cannot be scared of the tactics of this government,” he added.

When asked if his parents were worried about him, Vaghasiya said, “I called my father on phone who lives in Jungadh. He told me that he is proud of me and I told him not to worry about me.”

Parents of some of the party workers also arrived outside the Sabarmati Central Prison around 9 am. Mehul Shah, a construction sector businessman got emotional as he welcomed his 19-year-old son Anuj Shah, a BBA student, out of jail.

“Initially I did not know that my son was jailed but when I received the information, I got worried about him. It is okay that he is affiliated with a political party but the manner in which he was locked up for 11 days, it is absolutely unfair.”

Dharmik Mathukiya (21), the president of AAP’s student wing, who was also jailed, said, “BJP thought they can scare the kids by jailing them but they don’t know that we are here to fight…”