Copy of petition against Ahmed Patel's election missing; HC orders probe

The Gujarat High Court Friday ordered an inquiry after it learnt that a copy of the petition challenging Congress leader Ahmed Patel's election to the Rajya Sabha is missing from the court records. It came to light during the cross-examination of BJP's Balvantsinh Rajput, who has filed the election petition, before Justice Bela Trivedi.

When the copy was not found, Justice Trivedi directed the Registrar General of the high court to conduct an inquiry and submit a report in a sealed cover before February 8. This copy of the petition was given to Patel by Rajput's lawyers and subsequently submitted to the high court by Patel's lawyers.

On the second day of Rajput's cross-examination Friday, Patel's lawyers wanted to show this copy to Rajput. However, it was missing from the court records.

The judge said one copy of the petition was tagged at the end of the case file. But Patel's lawyers said it was not the copy which they had submitted. Patel won the Rajya Sabha election from Gujarat by defeating Rajput in August 2017.

Rajput has moved the high court, claiming that Patel bribed Congress MLAs to vote for him and the election should be set aside.

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