NOIDA: Nearly 100 members of a Dalit
outfit on Wednesday protested against the suspension of an additional district magistrate embroiled in a controversy with a retired colonel. Yuva Shakti Dal (YSD) demanded the ADM be reinstated and sought a CBI probe in the case.
Ex-servicemen of the district, on the other hand, started a signature campaign, demanding the immediate arrest of the ADM, amid reports that he managed to get a stay on police action from the Allahabad high court. Yuva Shakti Dal members gathered at the collectorate in Surajpur around 10 am and staged the
protest, demanding the immediate reinstatement of the ADM to his post. The ADM was suspended by the state government last Thursday after he was seen on a CCTV footage assaulting the Army veteran at a park in Noida on August 14 — the day the latter was arrested on an abduction and molestation complaint by the bureaucrat’s wife.
Ravi Gautam, national president of YSD, told TOI they would want a CBI probe in the case. They have also sought that the two cops who have been transferred
thrice after the incident be also be reinstated. Hundreds of ex-servicemen, meanwhile, gathered at Shaheed Smarak in Sector 29, where they launched a signature campaign, demanding the arrest of the ADM and dismissal of the cops who acted at the behest of the ADM and had arrested the retired colonel.
The ex-servicemen from different pockets of Noida, including Nar Vihar, Jalvayu Vihar, Vivek Vihar, Ram Vihar in Noida and
Dadri, Sikandrabad and Gurjinder Vihar of Greater Noida, signed on the petition addressed to the chief minister.
However, ADM’s lawyer VP Srivastava said his client has been granted a stay from arrest under IPC section 307 (attempt to murder) by the Allahabad high court on Wednesday. But no such order has been uploaded on the court’s website yet.
Retired colonel Shashi Vaid, who is at the forefront of the agitation, said, “We are not fighting against any community. Our fight is against the police and the administration which has insulted the army veteran by handcuffing him and putting him in jail without proper investigation.”
SSP Ajay Pal Sharma said “we are yet to get any court order on the stay”.
Representative image 
