April 2 violence: Agitators want all cases withdrawn

People from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes staged a hunger strike on Thursday before the district collector’s office demanding the withdrawal of police cases registered against protestors during the agitation on April 2 in Bharatpur

People from scheduled castes and scheduled tribes staged a hunger strike on Thursday before the district collector’s office demanding the withdrawal of police cases registered against protestors during the agitation on April 2 in Bharatpur.

Police registered nearly 2,500 complaints against protesters during the agitation on April 2 in Bharatpur district. (HT File)

The dharna was staged under the banner Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Ekta Manch and was led by Arvind Verma demanding that the state government withdraw cases against the agitators.

They handed over a memorandum for the chief minister for district collector Narendra Kumar Gupta. In the memorandum, they also demanded ₹50 lakh compensation for the death of a protester, Pawan Kumar, and a government job for his family in Alwar and ₹2 lakh for the injured.

“We are demanding that the government withdraw cases against the protesters. We will be forced to launch a rally from district to assembly in Jaipur,” Verma said.

“Home minister Gulab Chand Kataria and health minister Kalicharan Saraf had assured us that the cases will be withdrawn, but it has not been done. The government is trying to misguide us,” he said.

Police registered nearly 2,500 complaints against protesters during the agitation on April 2 in the district.

On April 2, protesters had blocked the road from Bharatpur-Kumher at the Kanjoli Line where they didn’t allow ambulances. Protesters blocked the Agra-Jaipur national highway at Saras intersection. Similarly, protesters had pelted stones at buses carrying foreign tourists from Australia. They set fire to a railway station too.

Rajasthan and many other states had witnessed massive violence during the Bharat Bandh, organised by Dalit groups to protest a recent Supreme Court order that allegedly diluted certain provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on April 2.