Bahraich (UP), Oct 21 (PTI) Police have lodged another FIR over the recent communal violence incident here against seven people, including an office bearer of the BJP’s city unit, on rioting and other charges based on a complaint of the party’s MLA from Mahsi Sureshwar Singh, officials said on Monday.
They said this is the 12th FIR registered so far in the Mahrajganj violence case. Twenty-two-year-old Ram Gopal Mishra was shot dead in Mahrajganj on October 13 during a dispute over loud music during a Durga idol immersion procession. The incident led to communal violence, followed by incidents of arson and vandalism.
Based on the complaint lodged by the BJP MLA on October 18 at the Kotwali police station in Bahraich, the case was registered against Arpit Srivastava, Anuj Singh Raikwar, Shubham Mishra, Kushmendra Chaudhary, Manish Chandra Shukla, Pundrik Pandey and Sudhanshu Singh Rana, besides an unknown rioting mob.
Police said the case was registered under sections 191(2) and 191(3) (rioting), 3(5) (criminal act done by several persons in furtherance of the common intention of all), 109(1) (attempt to murder), 324(2) (mischief), 351(3) (criminal intimidation), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 125 (act endangering life or personal safety of others).
Sources in the BJP said Srivastava is the president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha’s Bahraich city unit and Pundrik Pandey is a government teacher in Shravasti district.
The MLA alleged that when he, along with his bodyguards and other colleagues, reached the Bahraich Medical College to take Ram Gopal Mishra’s body to the mortuary on October 13, the accused and hundreds of others raised slogans of ‘murdabaad’ against them and hurled abuses.
“We somehow got the body placed in the mortuary,” the legislator said, adding that the incident occurred between 8 pm and 10 pm.
He further said, “When I and the district magistrate came out of the mortuary and moved forward on the road outside the gate, our car started turning, the above-mentioned people started pelting stones.” MLA Singh also alleged that “at the same time, a bullet was fired from the crowd, due to which a glass of the car broke and my son Akhand Pratap Singh had a narrow escape.” The lawmaker also urged police to examine the CCTV footage.
The police have already booked hundreds of suspected rioters, most of them unidentified, over the violence. They said the total arrests has reached 104. PTI COR NAV IJT IJT
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