The Gujarat High Court issued a notice to the state government on Monday, 2nd December, while hearing a man’s petition to cancel an FIR connected to him for setting fire to a police jeep two years ago in Ahmedabad. The 48-year-old man told the court he has a high degree of bipolar disorder and felt like he was Batman himself when this happened on 10th September, 2023 near Ellisbridge police station.
Police jeep set on fire | Accused moves Gujarat HC, cites ‘bipolar disorder’: ‘Perceived myself as ‘Batman”
@aditijfhttps://t.co/NB2lab2Z6X
— The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) December 2, 2025
Justice VK Vyas listened to the counsel appearing for the petitioners and sent the notice to the state, as well as the police sub-inspector from Ellisbridge who was in charge then.
The senior lawyer of the petitioner showed medical records in court, explaining that he has bipolar disorder with psychotic features, has been on medication since 2017, and gets regular treatment. His elderly mother looks after him day to day. The lawyer pointed out that police did not include these medical papers in the chargesheet, which makes it tough for him to show he was not in his right mind during the act.
The lawyer described how bipolar disorder comes in phases that don’t stick around forever. One day, a person might feel super happy, another day violent, and they start thinking they are someone else, like a social worker or even a police inspector. On that day in September 2023, the man thought he was the Batman character, fully caught up in that state. His home is right next to the police station, so he went to the jeep, grabbed some papers, burned them, put them into the vehicle, and walked away.
Right after the incident on 10th September 2023, police arrested him the same day based on CCTV footage. The visuals showed that the man parked his two wheeler under the overbridge near the police vehicle, opened the door of the police Jeep, put flammable material in it setting it on fire. Based on the registration number of the two-wheeler, police identified the man as Al Donald Marcus, arrested him and brought him before a magistrate the next day, who gave him bail. At that time, he told the police that he did to gain fame.
Soon after, he went into a hospital for care and later to a rehab centre in Bengaluru. The court told him that that he needs to file an application with the magistrate under the Bharatiya Nyay Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, so a judge can check if he was of sound mind when the crime took place.
The judge made it clear that the magistrate has to decide if he was thinking straight at the time of the incident. The Gujarat High Court has set the next hearing for 16th December. .