Police deployed in Upper Kot area of Aligarh. (Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)
Former Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) office-bearer Vinay Varshney is among the three persons booked for attempt to murder and breach of peace for Sunday’s violent clashes in Aligarh. Police said that they have also lodged an FIR against 37 others, all Muslims, for the clashes that left six persons injured after police tried to evict women protesting against the new citizenship law (CAA) and proposed NRC in Upper Kot neighbourhood of the city.
“In the FIRs lodged by the police, there are around 37 named persons, all Muslims. The Hindu side has filed around three FIRs, and the Muslims side one, naming Vinay,” a police officer said on the condition of anonymity, adding that no one has been arrested yet.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Vinay Varshney (33) denied that he fired at the protesters, but admitted to having pelted stones at the Muslim crowd.
“I am in a position of responsibility and people look up to me to protect them. On Sunday, when they attacked us, we had no option but to retaliate. Over the last three days, they had been raising slogans of azaadi in the area. These are outsiders. The local Shia Muslims support the BJP. It is my moral responsibility to protect my people and I did that,” Vinay Varshney told The Indian Express over the phone from an undisclosed location.
Ibrahim, who has been injured, and may lose vision. (Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)
Notably, Vinay has round-the-clock police protection of a gunman due to “threat to his life”. The police protection was provided to him after a communal flare-up in 2016 when he allegedly received “threat to his life”.
Among the six injured in the Sunday’s clash, the condition of two — Tariq and Ibrahim — is said to be “serious”. Both are admitted at Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College, located on the Aligarh Muslim University campus. While Tariq has received a gunshot wound in his stomach, Ibrahim’s left eye has shrapnel injuries and faces the risk of losing vision.
Tariq’s family has named Vinay in the FIR, accusing him of firing the bullet, while Ibrahim has accused one Gopal of firing from a country-made pistol. According to the FIR, Tariq was standing in the balcony of his house when he was hit by a bullet.
Mohammed Farooq Ansari, the father of Ibrahim, said Gopal, who runs a grocery shop, hurled communal abuses at his son and fired from a katta when Ibrahim had gone to buy ingredients for his biryani stall.
Meanwhile, a day after the clash, Upper Kot remained tense under heavy police protection. The lanes of the neighbourhood bore signs of the intense clash with pieces of brick strewn across the area. According to multiple accounts, the violence broke out around 3 pm. As the police tried to evict the women protesters, people started pouring in from nearby areas, they said. Muslims accused the police of manhandling women while evicting them from the protest site and later “shielding the rioters”.
On the other hand, Hindu residents of the area said they didn’t start the arson.
Former city councillor from BJP, Dinesh Varshney, said that they “had to respond on being attacked”. “When a large mob attacks your family, your loved ones, will you sit quiet? Two of our men also received bullet injuries and many suffered head injuries. We have been facing such threats from them for many years now, and it continues even as the BJP is in the government,” Dinesh said.
Several videos of the incident, including those showing masked men firing from pistols and double barrelled guns, did rounds on the social media.