Hardik Patel, who is leading an agitation for reservation for the Patel community in Gujarat, must be produced before a court tomorrow, the state government was told in the wee hours.

The Gujarat high court issued the order at around 2:30 am after Patel's lawyers moved a petition claiming that he had been detained by the police illegally. The police, however, said the 22-year-old had run away before he could be taken into custody, reports NDTV.

According to the police, Patel fled in a vehicle after they tried to detain him for holding a meeting in a village in Aravalli district in north Gujarat without permission. "As we came to know about it, our police team went there to detain him but he ran away from there to evade detention," Inspector General of Police Hasmukh Patel told PTI.

The police have lodged a case against Patel and 13 of his associates for organizing the meeting without permission.