The family members of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Amanatullah Khan were beaten up while celebrating his victory at his home in Agwanpur village of Meerut.
Khan contested from the Okhla constituency and defeated Brahm Singh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by 71,827 votes.
The police allegedly stopped the celebrations on Tuesday evening and resorted to a lathi-charge to disperse the MLA’s relatives and others in the village. Male cops allegedly misbehaved with young girls, pulled the hair of one and compelled her to walk through the streets of the village to assist them in finding the MLA’s relatives, who fled after the lathi charge.
A case of violation of Section 144 was registered against 13 named and other unidentified villagers. Noorullah, a relative of the AAP MLA, was named as the main accused, said villagers.
The station house officer of Parikshatgarh police station, Kailash Chand, refuted the allegations against the police. He said, “They are concocting stories to build false accusations against the police.”
He said the villagers had been booked on charges of violating Section 144 of the CrPC. “The villagers were taking out a procession and we stopped them in wake of Section 144 in the district. No force was applied against villagers,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}He said the villagers had been booked on charges of violating Section 144 of the CrPC. “The villagers were taking out a procession and we stopped them in wake of Section 144 in the district. No force was applied against villagers,” he said.
{{/usCountry}}Noorullah said there was no procession and the family members were distributing sweetmeats. The villagers called a ‘dholwala’ to celebrate the victory.
The villagers said the police arrived, told them to stop and started lathi-charge. All men fled the spot, fearing arrest, said villagers.
Nazmi, 22, a postgraduate student, said a few policemen went to the rooftop of a house and questioned the women about the men. “They misbehaved with Noorullah’s 17-year-old daughter and also tried to drag me downstairs,” she said.
She said that she fell, but the police pulled her by the hair and compelled her to walk through the village with them for over an hour to identify places where the men were hidden. “They kept pushing and abusing me to keep pace with them and relented only when I lost energy to walk,” said Nazmi.
A red mark was still visible around her neck, which she said was caused by a policeman forcibly pulling her by her dupatta.
The police are also alleged to have beaten up a shopkeeper, Hakimuddin, who sustained injuries to his right leg. “I was returning home to my sick wife after closing the shop, when the police caught me and started beating me,” he said.
Villagers Mohd Noman, Shahid, Abid and others claimed that police started beating up villagers indiscriminately.
Speaking over the phone, AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan said such incidents in Uttar Pradesh are a fallout of the politics of hate. He said, “What’s wrong if the police found my relatives celebrating my victory in the village?”
Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Atul Pradhan, district president, Rajpal Singh, and former MLA, Prabhudayal Valmiki, visited the village and met Noorullah and his family. They blamed the ruling BJP for the incident and said that on the pretext of Section 144, deprived the family of sharing their happiness over the victory of their relative.