Nahan (HP), Jun 15 (PTI) Nearly 100 protesters, including BJP state president Rajiv Bindal and Paonta Sahib MLA Sukhram Chaudhary, were booked on Sunday for assembling in front of Majra police station in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh, defying prohibitory orders.
Sirmaur Additional Superintendent of Police Yogesh Rolta on Sunday confirmed the filing of FIR against Bindal, Chaudhary and several others who were present in the crowd on June 14.
When contacted, Rajiv Bindal avoided an immediate reaction on the development and said that he will comment after getting all details of the case.
Police had issued prohibitory orders under Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita in four villages — namely Kiratpur, Malion, Fatehpur and Missarwala — in Paonta Sahib area until June 19, after 10 people were injured in stone-pelting on Friday evening.
The stone-pelting followed protests after a 19-year-old Muslim man from Kiratpur village eloped with an 18-year-old Hindu woman from a nearby village under Majra police station limits on June 4.
The girl’s family had lodged a complaint, but even after 10 days, no action was taken.
Hindu organisations and local people have been protesting for the last few days, demanding strict action against the “abductor”. On Friday, they blocked the Nahan-Paonta highway at Majra — about 25 kilometres from Nahan — for about an hour.
On Friday evening, as an angry crowd of protesters began moving towards the eloped man’s house, locals from the other side resorted to stone-pelting, which the protesters retaliated. Subsequently, police resorted to lathicharge to bring the situation under control.
Paonta Sahib Deputy Superintendent of Police Manvendra Thakur said they have arrested four persons — Sumit Gupta (40) and Manav Sharma (41) of Nahan town, Rajkumar (34) from Banethi village, and Jai Prakash (39) of Jabbal ka Bag village — on charges of attacking police personnel in Kiratpur village on Friday.
A 36-hour-long dharna — set to be led by Bindal and participated by hundreds of residents in Sainwala village in Majra area — was postponed on Saturday after Sirmaur police nabbed the eloped man and recovered the woman. PTI COR BPL RUK RUK
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