Farmers Movement Archive

R-Day violence: Delhi Police issue notices to 9 from UP’s Baghpat

Meerut: The Delhi Police have issued notices to nine people from Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh in connection with the ongoing investigation into the violence during the tractor rally taken out by the protesting farmers on Republic Day in the national capital, people aware of the matter said on Sunday.The notices were issued under 12 different sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Epidemic Diseases Act and the Disaster Management Act.Thousands of farmers who are protesting against the three contentious farm laws passed by the Parliament in September took out a tractor rally on January 26. The agitation descended into chaos as farmers broke barriers while deviating from the approved routes, clashed with the police and vandalised property at Red Fort. The notices were issued in cases registered at eas Delhi’s Pandav Nagar police station and Seemapuri police station. Among those who were issued notices are Desh khap’s thambedar (local chief) Chaudhary Brijpal Singh, Baljor Singh Arya of Malakpur village, Vishwas Chaudhary, who runs a school in Baraut, former Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) MLA Veerpal Rathi, councillor Ashutosh Tomar, and Vinod of Khera village, said officials who declined to be named. Arya said that the police may be targeting those who were leading the protest but were not actively involved in the violence. “If they want to do an investigation, then they should come here to verify facts,” said Arya. “I will not go there and send a reply to them,” he said.Chaudhary Brijpal Singh said that he was at a dharna in Baghpat district on January 26 and flagged off tractors with instructions to reach either the Ghazipur border or the Singhu border. “I don’t know on what basis they have sent me the notice,” he said.Vishwas Chaudhary said he has filed the response to the notice through his lawyer. He also said that the thambedar was with him on January 26 and it seems that notices were issued to those who were active in the Baraut dharna which started on December 17 and dispersed by the police on January 26 night.“It seems the list was provided to the police without verification,” said Chaudhary.Farmers, who were staging an indefinite dharna along the Delhi-Saharanpur highway in Baraut since December 17, were allegedly lathicharged by the police on January 26 night to disperse them from the protest site.Later, during a mahapanchayat convened by the Desh khap in Baraut on January 31 in protest against the lathicharge, additional district magistrate (Baghpat) Amit Kumar Singh and additional superintendent of police Manish Mishra regretted if anyone had been injured in the police act of removing protesters. A notice issued to one of the people read, “In exercise of the powers conferred under 160/91 of CrPc I hereby inform you that during the investigation of FIR no 66/2021, U/s 144/147/148/149/307/186/188/353/332/395/397/120B IPC, 3 Epidemic Disease Act and 51/58 (1) Disaster Management Act at Pandav Nagar Police station, it has revealed that there are reasonable grounds to ascertain facts and circumstances from you. Hence you are hereby informed through this notice that you have to appear before the undersigned at 1pm on dates 07/02/2021 for the purpose of investigation of the above said case.”The notice was signed by sub-inspector Niraj Kumar and SHO Pandav Nagar.Baghpat police officials were not available for comment.

Hindustan Times

07-02-2021

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