E-Paper
Day after attack on P’kula police team, 2 FIRs against 47 villagers
The second FIR has been registered on the complaint of the mining contractor
A day after 13 people were arrested for attack on a police team during a protest against mining at Rattewali village in Panchkula, a local court on Wednesday sent four of them to five-day police remand and nine to judicial custody.
At least 16 policemen, including ACP Raj Kumar, were injured, after being pelted with stones when they had gone to the village, 20km from the district headquarters, to disperse protesters blocking a road. Government vehicles were also damaged.
Two FIRs have been registered, wherein 47 villagers have been booked on various charges, including attempt to murder, rioting, assault on public servants and mischief by fire or explosive substance.
While the first FIR is against the 13 arrested on Tuesday for the attack on police team, the other is against 34 villagers on the complaint of the mining contractor.
“After the attack on police team, some miscreants attacked the mining contractor’s office. Search is on to arrest them,” said the ACP, adding that the number of suspects in both cases are likely to increase as police are still scanning videos to identify them.
Those booked in the first case, on the complaint of Sunil Jhakhar, district town planner and duty magistrate, are Mahender Singh, Subhash Chander, Karnail, Sanjeev, Jai Singh, Swaran Singh, Baalak Ram, Vinod Kumar, Krishan Kumar, Raampal, Sher Singh and two women, Sunita and Kamlesh.
The FIR mentions: “Villagers wanted to extort money from the contractor, who got the licence for mining in the area. When their illegal demand was not fulfilled, they blocked road obstructing work.”
Jhakhar said he had called around 15 villagers, including a former sarpanch, to show the mining permission, but instead of pacifying 100-150 protesters gathered there, they incited violence.
In the other FIR, contractor Pardeep Goyal alleged villagers attacked his office, burnt five bikes, 10 loaders and some property besides damaging CCTV cameras and taking away the DVR. “They even looted ₹5 lakh and threatened to kill us,” he said.
