The Aam Aadmi Party leaders, including state president Gopal Italia, who have been in jail for the last ten days for protesting outside the BJP headquarters here, were granted bail by a court in Gandhinagar on Thursday.
“The Gandhinagar court granted bail to the 65 AAP leaders who have been in Sabarmati Central Jail since December 20. I believe, by today evening, they will be released,” Pranav Thakkar, the legal counsel of AAP Gujarat, said.
However, they are yet to receive the copy of the bail order, the counsel added.
All of those arrested faced charges under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including criminal conspiracy, and sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.
As many as 28 women AAP members who were accused out of the total 93 arrested, have already obtained conditional bail.
These AAP members were arrested on December 20 for staging a protest outside the state BJP headquarters, ‘Shree Kamalam’ in Gandhinagar.
They were demanding the removal of BJP leader and chairman of the Gujarat Subordinate Service Selection Board (GSSSB), Asit Vora, who, according to them, should be held responsible for the head clerk recruitment exam paper leak.
The written exam was held on December 12, with 88,000 aspirants appearing for 186 vacancies. The AAP alleged that the question paper was sold in advance for Rs 8-Rs 12 lakh. While the government later annulled the exam and rescheduled it for March 2022, the police arrested 18 accused in the racket.
The protest at the Kamalam led to a clash between AAP and BJP workers following which the police lathicharged the crowd to disperse the protesters.
The Gandhinagar Police lodged an FIR against the AAP workers and arrested Gopal Italia, women’s wing president Gauri Desai, youth wing president Nikhil Savani, senior leaders Ishudan Gadhvi, Hasmukh Patel and 500 other workers.