BHOPAL: The Biaora town of Madhya Pradesh’s Rajgarh district witnessed violent scenes on Sunday as a large number of Citizenship (Amendment) Act supporters clashed with the police and local administration on being stopped from taking out the pro-CAA procession sans any permission.
While the CAA supporters, including BJP leaders (among them ex-MLA Amar Yadav) and workers, accused the administration of using force and cane charge on the peaceful gathering, the Rajgarh district collector Nidhi Nivedita claimed that it was people from within those trying to carry out the procession, who actually assaulted two women deputy collectors Priya Verma and Shruti Agrawal and even on-duty cops.
“Those present in the crowd pulled one of our woman administrative officers through hair and kicked her, besides trying to pull the clothes of both the women officers. Is this how they abide by the rule of law. They are supporting a newly passed law by violating prohibitory orders clamped u/s Section 144 of CrPc, banning all such rallies and processions in Rajgarh district,” Rajgarh district collector Nidhi Nivedita said.
The BJP workers alleged that the police cane charged them, while one of the BJP workers was slapped by the district collector. Two men were injured in the cane charge by police.
Importantly, the CAA supporters had given a call for rally/march in support of the new law in Biaora town of Rajgarh district on Sunday, despite the district administration has already denied permission to them in view of prohibitory orders clamped in the district to ensure peaceful Republic Day celebrations.
“But despite being denied permission around 50-100 persons took out the march. When they were stopped by police and administration, those present among the crowd actually started misbehaving with cops-administrative officials. When the two female deputy collectors stopped the procession, those forming part of the procession misbehaved with them. We’re identifying all those who misbehaved with our two women officers. All those people will be booked in a separate case, while 121 persons have so far been booked u/s 188 of IPC for violating the prohibitory orders,” the collector added.
Meanwhile, two men (both BJP workers) were injured when police cane charged the crowd which was protesting outside the police station in Biaora over the detention of those who had allegedly misbehaved with the two women administrative officers.
Around 10-12 men have so far been detained in connection with the developments. Meanwhile, the state BJP spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal lashed out at the state government and the Rajgarh district administration and police for the cane charge on the CAA supporters.
“In Madhya Pradesh, double standards are being followed when it comes to law and order maintenance per se CAA related protests/rallies. While, the Congress government has nothing against the anti-CAA protests and has instead taken action against those cops in Jabalpur and Indore, who were doing their duty to control the violent anti-CAA protestors when it comes to dealing with CAA supporters, the police and administration are violently dealing with them which was evident in Rajgarh district on Sunday,” said Agrawal.
The state Congress spokesperson Narendra Saluja, however, blamed BJP for the ugly incidents in Rajgarh district. “Carrying out march-procession sans permission and then misbehaving with women officers exposes that BJP wants to vitiate the peaceful atmosphere and has no respect for women,” said Saluja.