Slum dwellers attacked, Hindu Raksha Dal chief apprehended
Ghaziabad: Members of a Hindu right-wing organisation in Ghaziabad attacked people living in slums near the railway station calling them Bangladeshi infiltrators and destroyed their huts. Following the incident, police have registered an FIR and arrested Hindu Raksha Dal chief late on Saturday night.
According to police, nearly 20 men led by Hindu Raksha Dal president Bhupendra Chaudhary, alias ‘Pinky,’ thrashed some people living in slums near Guldhar railway station, calling them Bangladeshis and vandalised their huts. Police claimed that the people who were attacked are not Bangladeshis but residents of the state itself.
Ghaziabad Police Commissioner Ajay Kumar Mishra said, ‘The people living in the huts are not from Bangladesh, but from Shahjahanpur.’ Mishra said, ‘The police is considering applying the National Security Act (NSA) against the attackers in the case.’
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) of Kavi Nagar Abhishek Srivastava said that after receiving information about the incident, an investigation was conducted, which revealed that the victims of the attack were not actually Bangladeshi citizens, as claimed by the attackers.
He said that Police Sub Inspector Sanjeev Kumar, who was on duty at Sanjay Nagar, lodged an FIR at the local Madhuban Bapudham police station. Kumar said in his complaint that after hearing the noise, he and his police team reached the spot, where they saw that ‘Pinky’ and his supporters were abusing and beating some Muslims while raising anti-Bangladesh slogans. According to the complaint, the group also demolished the huts.
“I tried to explain to them that these people were not from Bangladesh, but they continued to beat them and damaged their hideouts,” Kumar said in his complaint. Police said an FIR was lodged against Pinky and 20 unidentified persons under relevant provisions of the law. The accused face charges under sections 191(2) (rioting), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 117(4) (causing grievous hurt), 299 (malicious acts to insult religious beliefs), 324(5) (mischief), and 354 (inducing belief in divine displeasure) of the Indian Penal Code. The victims, mostly daily wage laborers, are traumatized, homeless, and seeking compensation and protection.
