Jamnagar: A Jamnagar court on Friday acquitted the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) MLA from Viramgam, Hardik Patel, in a five-year-old case of making a political speech by going against a government order.

Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Jamnagar, M D Nandani, dropped all the charges on Patel and one Ankit Ghadiya after the prosecution failed to establish its case and the court could not find any evidence to implicate the duo.

In the order, the court noted that not just the ‘panchs’ (witnesses) but even the complainant in the case, Kirit Sanghavi, then a circle officer in the Mamlatdar office, was unaware of the contents of the speech. Furthermore, the prosecution failed to establish who possessed the CD containing Patel’s speech.

As per the FIR registered at Jamnagar ‘A’ Division police station, Patel, who then spearheaded the Patidar quota agitation under the banner of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), delivered a “political” speech at a rally in Dhutarpur village of Jamnagar district on November 4, 2017.

Ahead of the event, Ghadiya had approached the office of the Mamlatdar (executive magistrate), whose permission was granted on the grounds that Patel would address the rally on education and social reforms. However, Patel allegedly made a political speech and both he and Gadiya invited the charges under Sections 36(a), 72(2) and 134 of the Gujarat Police Act, which deals with punishment for disobeying government orders. DeshGujarat