Hardik Patel, 2 Congress MLAs detained on way to meet sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt
Palanpur, Aug 14: Congress leader Hardik Patel, two party MLAs and around 27 of their supporters were on Wednesday detained while they were on way to Palanpur district jail in Gujarat to meet sacked IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, police said.
Bhatt, who was in June awarded life sentence in a custodial death case, is currently lodged at the Palanpur district jail.
Hardik Patel, the Patidar quota agitation spearhead who joined the Congress earlier this year ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, was detained as soon as he and other party leaders entered Palanpur to go to the jail to meet Bhatt, Banaskantha's Superintendent of Police Niraj Badgujar said.
"We were expecting law and order issues at the jail in Palanpur, so we detained around 30 people, including Hardik Patel, Congress MLAs from Palanpur and Patan and their supporters, when they entered Palanpur to go to the sub-jail to meet Bhatt," he said.
The two MLAs who have been detained are Mahesh Patel of Palanpur and Kirit Patel of Patan.
The sacked IPS officer's wife Shweta Bhatt on Tuesday announced she will accompany her husband's supporters (most of them women), who wanted to tie 'rakhi' to him, to Palanpur jail, the police official said.
"Hardik Patel said he will also accompany her. While Sanjiv Bhatt's wife has been allowed to go to meet him as she is a family member, we have detained the others," he informed.
Sanjiv Bhatt was in June this year awarded life sentence in a custodial death case dating back to 1990 when he was posted as an additional superintendent of police in Jamnagar district.
On September 5, 2018, he was arrested in another case, where he is accused of falsely implicating a man for alleged possession of drugs in Palanpur in 1996. The trial in the case continues.
Some people recently launched a social media campaign in his support and sought rakhis, which they said will be handed over to him.
The Gujarat-cadre officer was suspended from the Indian Police Service in 2011 and sacked by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in August 2015 on grounds of "unauthorized absence from service".
In 2012, his wife unsuccessfully contested the state Assembly poll on Congress' ticket against Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Maninagar constituency in Ahmedabad.
Sanjiv Bhatt made headlines when he alleged in an affidavit before the Supreme Court that after the Godhra train burning incident of February 27, 2002, Modi, who was then the chief minister of Gujarat, at a meeting asked senior police officers to let the majority community vent its anger.
The Special Investigation Team appointed by the apex court to investigate the 2002 riots concluded that Bhatt, being a very junior officer then, was not present at the meeting.
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Real Madrid fines Valverde and Tchouaméni half a million euros each for altercation
Barcelona (AP): Real Madrid slapped players Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni with half-a-million-euro ($588,000) fines on Friday for their altercation during practice.
The massive fines came a day after the midfielders tussled when the team trained. Valverde said in a post on social media on Thursday that no punches were thrown. But Valverde knocked his head on a table and he suffered a small cut that required a brief hospital visit.
On social media, Valverde initially called it a “meaningless fight” with a teammate and said “everything has been blown out of proportion."
His employers, however, considered it a significant enough breach of team discipline to nail both Valverde and Tchouaméni with fines that bite even the bank account of a top soccer player. The half-a-million euro penalties reflect the reputational damage the club was enduring in a chaotic end to a disappointing season.
In a statement, the 15-time European champion said its disciplinary action was concluded after both players expressed to the club “their complete remorse for what happened and apologized to one another.”
Madrid added they also apologized to their teammates, the coaching staff and club supporters, as well as showing their willingness to accept whatever disciplinary action the club deemed “opportune.”
Tchouaméni was back training with Madrid on Friday, two days before they play at Barcelona in a clasico. Madrid has to win otherwise Barcelona will be crowned La Liga champion.
After being notified of the fine, he posted a public apology to the club and its fans on social media.
“What happened this week in training is unacceptable,” Tchouaméni wrote. "I say this while thinking about the example we are expected to set for young people, whether in football or at school.
“Above all, I am sorry for the image we projected of the club.”
Valverde was not at practice due to the head knock.
Both players are set to play in the World Cup next month, with Tchouaméni playing for France and Valverde for Uruguay.
Chaotic end to a poor season
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The run-in between the players, who for seasons have played side by side in Madrid's midfield, came after they argued this week in previous training sessions. But tempers boiled over on Thursday. Spanish media was rife with reports that the players previously disagreed over the club's decision to let coach Xabi Alonso go after just months on the job.
It was not the only altercation involving Madrid players during training this week. Álvaro Carreras confirmed he was in a “minor” incident with a teammate. Spanish media said he and fellow defender Antonio Rüdiger got into a scuffle.
Álvaro Arbeloa, the coach who was promoted from Madrid's reserve team when Alonso was fired in January, will face tough questions on what went wrong inside the changing room when he gives a press conference on Saturday ahead of the clasico at Camp Nou.
Madrid is facing a second consecutive campaign without a major trophy amid rumors in the Spanish media that club president Florentino Pérez is considering bringing back Jose Mourinho to straighten out his underperforming team.
