GREATER NOIDA: In the series of FIRs registered across the state against protesters of UP Police’s handling of the
Hathras incident
, Noida police have booked 60 people, including Samajwadi Party workers, for taking out candlelight marches.
The protest in question was organised in Roza Jalalpur and Sadullapur villages by local SP workers, who marched to Char Murti from Ek Murti roundabout around 7pm on October 1. Police said the crowd disrupted traffic and violated guidelines laid down in the light of Covid-19. The protesters, who were booked on October 2, were unaware about the FIR till Tuesday.
Avshesh Bhati, sub-inspector at Bisrakh police station who lodged the complaint, alleged that a group of about 50-60 men gathered without any prior information at Ek Murti roundabout from where they started walking towards Char Murti while raising slogans against the UP government.
“The crowd was hard to handle. The protesters clogged traffic on one side of the road and created a lot of nuisance for the next one or two hours,” he said.
SP functionary Deepak Nagar, his aides Amitr, Ravi Balmiki, Arun Balmiki, Sanjay Pandit, Vikky Balmiki, Monty Balmiki, Sagar Balmiki, Nitin Balmiki and Yogender Jatav, along with 50 unnamed persons, have been booked under IPC sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 and 270 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and Section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.
The protesters said the allegations of traffic disruption were baseless. Deepak Nagar said the protest was peacefully conducted under the supervision of Bisrakh police and no rules were violated.
“The intention of the police administration behind the FIR is pretty clear -- they want to suppress the voices of the poor and the oppressed class. The peaceful march was organised to show solidarity with the victims of police’s misbehaviour in Hathras, which is why the FIR has been registered against us,” Nagar said, adding that the protesters didn’t shout or create a ruckus.
In six days, this is the fifth FIR in GB Nagar – others were lodged at Ecotech 1 and Sector 20 police stations -- in relation to the protests over the
Hathras
gang rape. An FIR at Ecotech 1 police station was filed on October 1 against 153 named, including senior Congress leaders Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, and 50 unnamed persons. The same day, three more party leaders and an unnamed person were booked at the same police station for allegedly molesting a sub-inspector.
The following day, yet another FIR, this time at Sector 20 police station, named two Congress functionaries and 500 unnamed persons for unlawful assembly on the Delhi-UP border, allegedly in violation of Covid norms. The FIR against the SP workers and 60 others came on the same day.
On Tuesday, BKU member Yogesh Choudhary, a local farmer in Jewar, was booked for allegedly posting derogatory remarks about the UP CM.