Youths, cops level assault allegations after nakabandi face-off

Nagpur: Jaripatka police rounded up three Punjabi youths, including two juveniles, for allegedly assaulting and threatening cops with a ‘Delhi-like’ incident on Saturday. Cops had stopped the trio, riding triple seat on a Bullet, during a nakabandi. One of the three, Prabhjyot Singh Nijjar, was arrested while the two juveniles were handed over their parents after formalities at the police station.
However, sources claimed the police also badly thrashed the youths, which led to protests by their families at the police station. Relatives of the accused and other members of the community are said to be planning a protest against the police action on Monday at Patankar Square and a gherao at the Jaripatka police station.
Earlier this month, a video of a Sikh man, wielding a sword and fighting with cops in New Delhi had gone viral, after police stopped his vehicle during nakabandi.
Sources said cops were carrying out nakabandi in the area, when they spotted three persons riding on a Bullet and signalled them to stop. The trio too spotted the cops, and tried to turn the bike and flee the spot.
However, one of the cops stopped them and asked them to come towards the traffic cops and pay a fine. However, the youths started quarrelling with the cop. Soon, other police personnel spotted the heated debate and tried to force the youth to cooperate with the traffic cops.
One of the cops, Gajendra Singh Thakur, said, “We asked them to cooperate with us but they were reluctant. They even asked us to seize the vehicle and continued abusing us before suddenly assaulting my colleague.”
One of the youths also punched a cop with a kada. The cops sustained an injury on his nose, following which police personnel nabbed the trio and took them to the police station. However, at this time, one of the Punjabi youths threatened cops with the ‘Delhi-like’ incident.
“They continued to threaten us with a Delhi-like incident. At that time I didn’t know what they were talking about. But later I checked, and remembered that one of the youths was carrying a kirpan,” said Thakur.
Cops took the trio to the police station and registered a case of threatening and obstructing a government employee in discharge of his duty.