`Sotta released on undertaking’

VADODARA, April 29: Congress councillor Shailesh Mehta, alias Sotta, who was arrested by the police under the Prevention of Anti-Social Act ...

VADODARA, April 29: Congress councillor Shailesh Mehta, alias Sotta, who was arrested by the police under the Prevention of Anti-Social Act on April 13 and released subsequently, presented two securities and a personal bond to the police recently, as a guarantee that he would behave himself in future.

Sources in the police department said that he had not been released by the police under public pressure but by the government on the undertaking that he (Mehta) would behave himself once released.

However, after his release from jail, Mehta issued a statement that his arrest was politically motivated and that the charges levelled against him had been trumped up at the behest of his political adversaries.

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It may be recalled that the Congress workers in large numbers had taken out rallies and staged demonstrations outside the police commissionerate demanding his release.

Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Amarsinh Chaudhary had also met Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel and apprised him of the “political vendetta” launched by his partymen in Vadodara and demanded that Mehta be released immediately.

Mehta was subsequently released on April 24 but only after giving an undertaking that he would not indulge in any unlawful activity, it appears now.

The security and the bond furnished for the release may be confiscated by the government if he broke the pledge within one year, sources in the police department added.