Three held for assaulting Sikh men, vandalising showroom in Rishikesh

Uttarakhand Police on Monday arrested three men for allegedly vandalising a bike showroom, assaulting Sikh men and forcibly removing their turbans in Rishikesh on Sunday, as Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) asked chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and state police chief Deepam Seth to take action against culprits

Dehradun/Amritsar : Uttarakhand Police on Monday arrested three men for allegedly vandalising a bike showroom, assaulting Sikh men and forcibly removing their turbans in Rishikesh on Sunday, as Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) asked chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and state police chief Deepam Seth to take action against culprits.

Uttarakhand Police on Monday arrested three men for allegedly vandalising a bike showroom, assaulting Sikh men and forcibly removing their turbans in Rishikesh on Sunday, as Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) asked chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami and state police chief Deepam Seth to take action against culprits.

The incident took place on Sunday afternoon and a video of the alleged incident went viral on social media.

The accused have been identified as Dharamveer, Raja and Raju, all residents of Rishikesh.

Dehradun police on Sunday registered an FIR against Congress councillor Veerpal and two others — Kailash and Suraj Jatav — for allegedly vandalising complainant Ranjeet Singh’s showroom, assaulting his staff and family members and forcibly removing their turbans.

The complainant alleged that the accused was trying to extort ₹50,000 from him, adding that they molested a female staffer at the showroom and took away a gold chain and ₹1.5 lakh from them.

On his complaint, the police registered an FIR under Sections 115 (2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 308 (2) (extortion), 309 (4) (robbery), 324 (4) (mischief causing damage to the amount of twenty thousand rupees and more but less than one lakh rupees), 351 (3) (criminal intimidation), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), and 74 (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita at the Rishikesh police station.

The SSP said the police teams are searching for the three accused named in the FIR, which includes the name of a Congress councillor.

The police have registered a cross FIR against the showroom owner on the complaint of Congress councillor for allegedly assaulting them and using casteist remarks.

The FIR was registered under Sections 115 (2) (voluntarily causing hurt) and relevant sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

In his complaint, the Congress councillor alleged that the showroom owner parks bikes on the road due to which public faces inconvenience and when he went to the showroom to ask him to remove bikes, the owner and his family members assaulted him with an iron rod and used casteist remarks against his SC community.

Superintendent of police (rural) Jaya Baloni said: “We have registered FIRs on the complaint from both sides.”

Earlier in the day, the Akal Takht, highest temporal seat of the Sikhs, and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), condemned the attack.

In a statement, Akal Takht jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh described the incident as an attack on the fundamental rights and freedom of different religious communities in the country.

He said the SGPC has already written to the Uttarakhand CM and Uttarakhand Police demanding strict action against the perpetrators.

In his letter to CM Dhami and Uttarakhand DGP Deepam Seth, SGPC chief secretary Kulwant Singh Mannan wrote: “A Sikh businessman and his brother were attacked by a mob over a petty issue on Sunday. The attackers not only caused serious damage to their showroom by pelting stones but also physically assaulted them, besides removing their turbans.” He urged Dhami and the DGP take immediate action against the perpetrators.