Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Police Saturday booked Subrat Pathak, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP for Kannauj, nine people believed to be his supporters and 42 unknown persons on charges including rioting, assaulting a public servant, and criminal intimidation.
The action came after the MP and the others allegedly assaulted a group of local policemen in Kannauj following a dispute over the detention of some men, including BJP supporters, in connection with an abduction case.
The FIR, accessed by ThePrint, was lodged on a complaint from the sub-inspector in charge of Kannauj’s Mandi Samiti police post, Hakim Singh, who alleged that the MP arrived at the post at his supporters’ behest, grabbed him by the collar, pushed him around while hurling abuse, and beat him up.
The MP’s aides then beat up a group of policemen, including three sub-inspectors and four constables, the sub-inspector has alleged.
Pathak, however, told ThePrint he had received information that “the police had misbehaved with BJP supporters”, including one from the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category, one from the Scheduled Castes, and a woman.
“When I was passing by, I was informed of a fight at Mandi Samiti police post and tried to mediate, and informed the Kannauj additional superintendent of police (Arvind Kumar). Others too arrived. A BJP worker had been framed in an abduction case despite no involvement. When the additional SP was informed about it, the worker was let off,” he said.
When asked about the FIR lodged against him on allegations that he had held a policeman by his collar and beat him up, Pathak accused Kannauj SP Kunwar Anupam Singh of being close to rival political parties.
When it was pointed out that the Uttar Pradesh Police were under the control of a BJP-led government, Pathak alleged that his name had been “added to the FIR deliberately”, and said “the party (BJP) does not hinder the work of the government”.
“Let the matter be investigated and action taken against the guilty,” he added.
When contacted by ThePrint, additional SP Arvind Kumar said he would not be able to comment on the case and directed ThePrint to contact SP Kunwar Singh.
The SP did not take calls or reply to a message sent to him by ThePrint.
The FIR has been lodged under Indian Penal Code sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting with armed weapons), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 504 (intentional insult to provoke), 506 (criminal intimidation), 427 (mischief causing damage), and 225 (resistance or obstruction to lawful apprehension of another person), as well as section 7 (molesting a person) of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act.
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Abduction case & what FIR says
The abduction case pertains to Deepu and Neelesh Yadav, two brothers from Kannauj who own a mobile shop in Auras, in Unnao district. The pair allegedly had a monetary dispute with a man called Prabhakar Kushwaha.
A complaint made by Deepu at Auras police station alleged that Kushwaha had abducted Neelesh with help from his friends and brought him to Kannauj.
Neelesh was reportedly found near the Tiger Gym in Kannauj and a team from the Unnao police, assisted by their Kannauj counterparts, detained Kushwaha, one Sagar Sharma and three others in connection with the case. They were then taken to the Mandi Samiti police post.
That’s when things escalated.
According to the FIR in possession with ThePrint, the altercation at the Mandi Samiti post took place following a dispute between Pathak’s supporters and the police team over the detention of Kushwaha and the others.
In the FIR, sub-inspector Hakim Singh has said that he, along with the in-charge of Kannauj’s Saraimeera police post, was present at the local Tiger Gym to extend help to the Unnao police team that had apprehended those named as accused in the abduction case.
“In order to note the details of the accused held by the Unnao police, we came to the Mandi Samiti police chowki when Avnish (said to be a Pathak supporter) entered the chowki and started (asking) with whose permission the accused (had been) held, and told us to immediately release them,” the FIR says.
“As soon as the (police) team started leaving with the accused youth, Avnish, Pushpendra Prajapati, Nayan Mishra, Vijay Pandey, Suraj Rajput started hurling abuses at the team and pushing the police team members. They attempted to release the accused from police custody when sub-inspectors Tarun Singh Bhadauria, Hemant Kumar and four constables Rohit Lavania, Subhash, Lavi Khari and Neeraj Kumar tried to stop them, but they started abusing and pushing (them) too. The Unnao police team left from the spot,” it adds.
Soon, Avnish made a phone call to the MP and told him that that the in-charges of Mandi Samiti and Saraimeera police chowkis had “got people known to them arrested” by the Unnao police in a wrongful manner, the sub-inspector alleges in the FIR.
“He told the MP to come to the police chowki, otherwise they would set the police chowki on fire. Hurling abuses at us, he handed over the phone to the Saraimeera chowki in-charge and asked him to speak to the MP (who), hurling abuses, asked us to call back the Unnao police team within 15 minutes or (he said he would) set the police chowki on fire. Soon, the MP himself arrived at the police chowki along with his gunner,” the FIR reads.
The MP asked about sub-inspector Hakim Singh, moved towards him, grabbed him by his collar, and started hurling abuses and pushing him, the FIR says. It adds that when the policeman resisted, the MP beat him up.
“When sub-inspectors Tarun Singh Bhadauria, Hemant Kumar and four constables Rohit Lavania, Subhash, Lavi Khari and Neeraj Kumar tried to save me, Sachet Pandey, Pushpendra Prajapati, Vijay Pandey, Vasu Mishra, Nayan Mishra, Avnish, Mohit Katheria, Jitendra Shukla and 40-42 unknown people beat up the policemen and hurled abuses at us, which led to breach of peace. They continued to hurl abuses and resorted to beating even when the station house officer of Kotwali police station, Ajay Awasthi, arrived with his force. This led to the policemen’s uniforms getting torn,” reads the FIR.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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