Haryana mahapanchayat held to protest arrests despite curbs, speakers say: Want CM like Yogi Adityanath | Gurgaon News – Times of India
A 23-year-old mosque member was stabbed to death and a deputy imam suffered grievous injuries in the mob attack, which was carried out hours after the July 31 violence in Nuh.
“We know the police will need some time to carry out the investigation. All we demand is that our innocent youths should not be harassed. Many of them detained in connection with the attack are innocent,” claimed Mahesh Dayema, a former councillor from Sector 30 and one of the coordinators of the panchayat.
Four youths from Tigra – Rakesh (23), Ravinder (32), Rahul (25) and Ankit (25) – have been arrested in connection with the arson attack. Two from Nathupur, Tinkle (26) and Naveen (27), and Satpal (30) of Bandhwari have been picked up too.
Over 800 people, sarpanches and a few councillors from villages not just in Gurgaon, but Faridabad, Hisar, Jhajjar, Palwal and Rewari attended the panchayat, which was marked by speeches against one community. It started around 10.45am on the premises of a government school.
The district administration had ordered restrictions under Section 144 CrPC in the area. Teams of the local police and the Rapid Action Force started flag marches as early as 6am on Sunday and checked every vehicle that passed.
At the panchayat – organised by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal and other right-wing organisations – many of the speakers said they needed a chief minister “like Yogi Adityanath”. “If we cannot get a CM like Yogi Adityanath, Mewat (Nuh) should be made part of UP,” one of them said. Others protested the “arbitrary arrests” in connection with the attack on the Anjuman masjid in Sector 57.
“The district administration and the police have been arbitrarily arresting our youths and harassing them. On the contrary, the actual culprits are moving scot-free,” a speaker said.
One of the participants suggested that Nuh should be divided into three zones. “One of them should be in Gurgaon, while the others in Palwal and Rewari.”
The decision to hold the panchayat had attracted contesting opinions in Tigra. Antram Tanvar, a former pradhan, had described the meeting as an attempt to stoke tension in the name of religion, saying such matters were best handled by courts and police.
“An FIR has already been registered and 40 people have been named in it. Four of them have been arrested from our village too. This is clearly a matter that should be resolved by a court. Let the police investigate the case and the court take a decision,” Tanvar, a member of JJP, which is BJP’s coalition partner in Haryana, had said.
He had also asked why the “religiously influenced” panchayat was being organised “when the administration is trying to restore peace”. “I have been living here for the past 50 years. People of all religions live here in peace,” he had said.
Gurgaon police chief Kala Ramchandran told TOI the entire session had been recorded. “We have it on camera. We will go through the videos and take a call on our next course of action. Our primary focus now is to ensure peace in the area and maintain law and order.”
The villagers have formed a committee of 101 members to put pressure on the police and the district administration to speed up the probe. They said a bigger panchayat would be organised if “innocent” youths were kept behind bars.
A delegation will meet deputy commissioner Nishant Yadav on Monday and present a list of demands.
