Ashok Gehlot Alleges Snooping As Channels Air Hotel Clip Of Hardik Patel

AHMEDABAD: Amid intense speculation over a meeting between Rahul Gandhi and Patidar activist Hardik Patel on Monday, Congress leader Ashok Gehlot accused the Gujarat police of snooping and taking security footage from the hotel in Ahmedabad where he stayed.

Local Gujarati TV channels looped security footage of Hardik Patel at the luxury hotel around 2 am as proof of his "secret" meeting with Mr Gandhi. Mr Gehlot alleged that the Gujarat Police and intelligence officials took CCTV footage from the hotel, where he had held meetings through the day.

"Why CCTV footage was taken by IB and police from hotel? Is the right to privacy, sole proprietorship of #JayAmitShah?" Mr Gehlot said in tweets tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his office.

"I condemn all this surveillance being done on BJP's orders," he posted.

Mr Gehlot, the Congress' in-charge of poll-bound Gujarat, said he had met Hardik Patel and several others through the day at the Ummed Hotel.

"I met Hardik and Jignesh in Ummed Hotel. IB, Police are checking hotel rooms. What is happening in Gandhiji's Gujarat?...Are HardikPatel and Jignesh Mevani criminals or absconders? If that is so, BJP must clear its stand. When they met BJP leaders, then their offices were not checked. Why it is being done now?," he tweeted.