Farmer’s daughters assaulted over his role in retrieving govt land; 10 booked

Pilibhit: A case has been registered against 10 individuals – including three unidentified persons – for allegedly assaulting two sisters in Bailha village under Hajara police station over a dispute with their father, who helped the Pilibhit revenue administration retrieve 3.5 acres of govt land from their illegal occupation.According to a complaint lodged by Ratan Singh, 60, on Saturday, the incident took place on Dec 31, when Mahendra Singh, a farmer from Tilla Number 4 village, along with his associates, barged into his house and thrashed his daughters, Meena Kaur, 23, and Paramjeet Kaur, 26. He said the assailants hurled abuses at the women and threatened to kill the family."Mahendra told my daughters that since I assisted the administration in destroying their wheat crop, now they should face its consequences," he said. Both women suffered severe trauma and head injuries and are undergoing treatment.Puranpur tehsildar Ashish Gupta said Mahendra and his associates had illegally occupied govt land in Bailha village about a month ago to sow wheat crop. Following a request from revenue officials, Ratan had deployed his tractor to destroy the crop, after which the land was reclaimed by the administration.Hajara SHO Sharad Yadav said an FIR has been registered under sections 333 (house trespass after preparation for hurt), 191(2) (rioting), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 351(3) (criminal intimidation) of the BNS.