Supporters of Patel Patidar Andolan, an organisation led by Hardik Patel, bang metal plates with rolling pins during an event to mark the Navratri festival in Ahmedabad late Sunday.

Agencies/Ahmedabad

Police in Gujarat have filed sedition charges against powerful community leader Hardik Patel after he allegedly incited a supporter to kill police rather than commit suicide.
The 22-year-leader has been spearheading huge protests in Gujarat to demand quotas for the Patel group in education and government jobs.
Patel alleged the video containing his remarks was doctored.
“The complaint was filed on Sunday night. We have closely examined the tape. It does not appear to be doctored,” a police officer in Surat’s Amroli police station said on condition of anonymity.
The maximum penalty for sedition is life imprisonment.
Patel allegedly made the remarks at a meeting with a supporter, Vipul Desai, who had threatened to kill himself in Surat about a fortnight ago.
“If you have so much courage ... then go and kill a couple of policemen. Patels never commit suicide,” The Times of India quoted Patel as telling Desai.
Patel is already under arrest in Gujarat’s Rajkot city where he was detained on Sunday after he threatened to disrupt an India-South Africa cricket match.
The Rajkot police did not release Patel. Late on Sunday, they took him in custody alleging that he had shown disrespect to the national flag earlier in the day by trampling on it and holding it upside down.
Patel is the face of an agitation by the politically influential Patel community for reservation in government jobs and colleges in Gujarat. Since his brief detention in Ahmedabad in August that led to large-scale violence in many parts of the state, the Gujarat police have thwarted the young activist’s many attempts to gather crowds and stage protests.
That has led to his arrest several times in the last few months. In September, Patel accused the police of abducting him.
The BJP government in Gujarat has said it will be unable to meet the Patel demand for inclusion in the list of castes that get the benefit of affirmative action.