Patidar agitation spearhead Hardik Patel on Tuesday reached Gujarat after spending six months away from his home state as per the Gujarat High Court’s order.
The 23-year-old leader, who had shifted base in Udaipur after high court order, left for Gujarat along with his supporters in four vehicles and reached the Gujarat border without incident, SP Udaipur Rajendra Prasad said.
“A local SHO and some policemen were deployed to make sure he leaves peacefully in the morning today,” he said.
Meanwhile, supporters of Hardik Patel got into a tussle with officials at Kherwada Khandri Obri toll plaza. Hardik’s caravan started reaching the toll plaza around 10:30 am in the morning. Before the central part of the caravan carrying Hardik reached the plaza, a set of 15-20 vehicles of supporters reached the plaza.
On the directions of toll manager Rajesh Mishra and JP Mishra, the employees asked for toll collection from the vehicle drivers. This agitated the supporters and the atmosphere heated up.
Toll plaza manager took support of SHO Ratan Singh and ASI Mahendra Singh tried to pacify the supporters but to no avail. In the interim, the main caravan carrying Hardik reached the plaza. Hardik’s colleague Ashok Patel immediately reached the plaza and took control over the situation. He said that they did not want to go against law and would be paying the toll fees as a lumpsum for all vehicles. Post this, the vehicles were counted and the payments made.
