Hours after midday meal ration seizure from dairy, DPO attacked by ABVP

Meerut: Hours after seizure of midday meal ration from a dairy, where it was allegedly being fed to cows, the district programme officer (DPO), who had led the raid, was allegedly attacked by ABVP members late on Friday night. Earlier in the day, DPO GK Tiwari had seized 108 kg of midday meal ration meant for anganwadi children. The ration was being diverted by the husband of an anganwadi worker to a dairy for consumption of cattle.
Police had detained the woman’s husband Kunwar Sen Bansal and dairy owner Praveen Kumar. “Late on Friday night while I was returning after getting an FIR registered in the case at Civil Lines police station, my vehicle was stopped by a dozen youths, including ABVP’s city general secretary Ankit Bansal, who also happens to be Kunwar Sen Bansal’s son, and its state public relations head Anshul Gupta. I was asked to withdraw my complaint. When I told them that the matter was now in the district magistrate’s hands, they damaged my vehicle and even tried to attack me. I somehow managed to escape from there,” Tiwari told TOI.
He added that he has submitted a complaint regarding the incident to the SSP and has been assured protection. On the other hand, ABV’s Anshul Gupta refuted the charges against him. “The allegations levelled against us are completely false. It is true that we met the DPO, but that was in the day and not at night. We told him that there was some misunderstanding related to the seizure of midday meal ration and requested him to withdraw the complaint. However, instead of cooperating with us, he asked for Rs 1 lakh bribe,” he said.
According to Dheeraj Shukla, SHO, Civil Lines police station, “An FIR was registered against Praveen Kumar and Kunwar Sen Bansal on Friday night under relevant sections of the Essential Commodities Act. Both men were sent to jail.”
Meanwhile, an armed guard has been assigned to Tiwari. “The DPO had approached me with a complaint of assault. I had asked him to file an FIR, but he was not keen on that. We have provided him an armed guard for a month as per his request,” said SSP Manzil Saini.