Gujarat HC reserves order on 2nd sedition FIR against Hardik

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Questioning the FIR, petitioners’ lawyer B M Mangukia said the charges against them are based on phone interception, which is not permissible as it amounts to breach of privacy. He told the court of Justice J B Pardiwala that the phones of Hardik and five other accused were tapped from July 15 when there was no issue of law and order in the state.

The DCB has claimed that it has 45 GB data of phone interception, the lawyer said.

“The FIR itself is questionable as it looks like an opinion of a law expert rather than a complaint. I never demanded that the present government should be removed and the British government shall be brought back. We haven’t said that we are going to bomb assembly. Gujarat saw more then this during Navnirman movement. What is wrong with the present government. It should have patience to listen to their subject and it can’t suppress the voice of dissent,” Mangukia argued.

He said there was a different between dissenting against the lawfully “elected government” and “sovereignty of state”. Mangukia also mentioned that to prove the public prosecutor has cited a judgment in 1944 under the British rule. He said that the British rule had brought sedition with a different purpose. He said, “The whole fight was against the British rule.. .We wanted independence.”

On the other hand, public prosecutor Mitesh Amin argued that the conversation intercepted by authorities and collected by the investigating officer have to be seen in a wider context. He said the accused while claiming reservation, “bent upon to accomplish it and went to the intent of murdering policemen, targeting leaders among others”.