Cops adopt new technique to deal with rowdy behaviour of Patidar leaders

Surat: City police have found a new way to deal with young Patidar leaders, who already seemed to have lost much of their popularity among youths, but three years after they had stormed into public consciousness with the demand for reservation in jobs and seats in educational institutes for the community.
Police used mobile phone messaging system to expose Alpesh Kathiriya, convener of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), on Friday. They avoided falling into a trap when Kathiriya continuously attempted to provoke them by using abusive language against them. However, they had no hesitation in making public the videos of him hurling abuses at them.

Cops shot videos of Kathiriya from their mobile phones and shared them with print and electronic media groups. This was their way to hit at his support base among Patidar youths. Cops shared several videos of Kathiriya creating ruckus at Varachha police station on Friday in which he is seen abusing the police station officer, a police sub-inspector and policemen of other ranks. The videos went viral at a time when Kathiriya was taken to court a few minutes after he gave call to Patidar activists to carry out demonstrations following his arrest at Varachha police station. The video that went viral was that of Kathiriya abusing an assistant commissioner of police (ACP) while lodged in the lockup. In this video, Kathiriya can be seen walking and abusing the cops in his loud voice from behind the bars. He uses derogatory terms for the police uniform. Altogether, the videos did have impact on a large number of his supporters.

“Despite the extreme level of abuses hurled at them, police did not react in anger. Had the policemen reacted, they would have got a chance to blame us. He made all attempts to provoke the policemen but only got exposed himself,” said A M Parmar, in-charge ACP, A division.