Uttarakhand police book over 300 unidentified men for Chamoli violence

The Uttarakhand police have registered a first information report (FIR) against over 300 unidentified men at Nandanagar police station in Chamoli district over Sunday’s attack on shops belonging to members of the Muslim community by a large group of protestors who sought arrest of a man accused of flashing at a 14-year-old girl.

The FIR said the attack lasted for around 12 hours and some people in the crowd were carrying sticks, iron pipes, and axes. The protestors also vandalised a place of worship of the minority community and assaulted a Muslim man, it added.

The FIR was registered on the complaint of station in charge Sanjay Singh Negi.

Negi, in the complaint, said that at 9.03 am, he first received information from a constable that over 100 people had gathered at ‘Band Bazaar’ and were furious as the barber accused of flashing at a minor girl belonged to a particular community.

“They wanted to harm the people from the community of the accused. I soon reached the Band Bazaar in my government vehicle and instructed the entire police force at the police station to reach the spot. The crowd of protestors had already swelled to 250-300. They were abusing a particular community. They then moved in a procession towards Purana Bazaar. When I tried to stop them, they pushed me aside. I informed my senior officials about the incident and demanded additional force for deployment,” he said.

He said as the crowd continued to move ahead, they beat a Muslim man, Haroon, a resident of Najibabad, at Kurur bridge and he was saved by cops from the clutches of the crowd. They then started raising slogans against people of a particular community and vandalised shops, he added.

“The angry mob was targeting a particular community. The women and men of their community in the houses were frightened and screaming. The mob was successful in carrying out their plans even though the police tried to stop them. Even my uniform was torn in attempt to stop them. Some of them in the crowd were carrying sticks, iron pipes, axes, etc,...with the help of my fellow policemen I snatched one axe from two men to avoid any untoward incident,” Negi said.

The rampage went on from 9am to 8.30 pm when the police managed to disperse the crowd, the FIR said.

Chamoli superintendent of police (SP), Sarvesh Panwar, said they have registered the FIR against over 300 unidentified men under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for spreading anarchy in the town.

“Our efforts to identify them are underway. We have videos (of the incident). Strict action will be taken against them,” he said.