Chandigarh: FIR registered on complaint of woman activist manhandled at BJP event

A video clip of the alleged incident was recorded by a local and put online and has since been shared widely on social media, inviting criticism from opposition parties, residents and farm leaders

Five days after a woman activist was allegedly manhandled while protesting in favour of farmers’ demands at a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) event in Chandigarh, police on Tuesday registered a case against unknown persons on her complaint.

The activist had alleged that she was manhandled, harassed, and subjected to abusive language while she was showing black flags to Union minister Anurag Thakur during a BJP event in Chandigarh.

The FIR has been registered under Sections 341 (wrongful restraint) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code at the Sector-26 police station. No one has been named in it.

The activist had alleged that she was manhandled, harassed, and subjected to abusive language while she was showing black flags to Union minister Anurag Thakur, who was in Chandigarh to launch the BJP’s Jan Ashirwad Yatra from Himachal Bhawan in Sector 28 on August 19.

A video clip of the alleged incident was recorded by a local and put online and has since been shared widely on social media. Even as BJP leaders have maintained that it was staged, the incident has invited criticism from opposition parties and farm leaders.

Women members of both Aam Aadmi Party and Congress staged protests against the BJP, while farm leader Gurnam Singh Charuni had demanded immediate arrests of those involved. Even the woman activist along with other protesters had gathered at Matka Chowk on August 20, following which a complaint was submitted to the senior superintendent of police’s office.