12 arrested for Azamgarh violence, SO suspended

Varanasi: A couple of days after Dalits were attacked in Maharajganj township of Azamgarh, the government on Friday suspended Maharajganj SO Virendra Pandey for laxity in duty and initiated the process of invoking National Security Act (NSA) and Gangster Act against the accused. Earlier, Dalits were targeted in a Jaunpur village on Tuesday.
Maharajganj had witnessed largescale violence on Wednesday against members of Dalit community. The police have arrested 12 accused and launched a manhunt has been launched to nab seven absconding accused. A reward of Rs 25,000 each on the absconding accused has also been announced.
According to reports, a group of Dalits was allegedly attacked with sticks and weapons by the people of another community at Sikandarpur Ayama village in Maharajganj police station area on Wednesday evening. Several persons were injured in this attack. The injured persons were admitted to the hospital for treatment.
On the complaint of one Vinod Kumar, the police have lodged an FIR against 19 persons under sections 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life), 271 (disobedience to quarantine rule) of IPC and sections of Epidemic Act, SC/ST Act and Criminal Law Amendment Act.
Acting on the complaint, the police have arrested 12 accused including Parvez, Faizan, Noor Alam, Sadar-e-Alam, Amir, Ashif and Suhail.
“Maharajganj SO Virendra Pandey has been suspended for laxity in duty, and process of NSA and Gangster Act has been initiated against the accused,” Azamgarh SP Triveni Singh told TOI on Friday.
“Some youths of Muslim community allegedly used to harass and pass on lewd remarks on the girls and women of SC community. When objected, they allegedly attacked the SC people in which over 10 persons were injured,” he added.
He said that four teams of police have been constituted to nab the absconding accused. “Since the crime is of serious nature impacting law and order situation, the process of NSA and Gangster Act has been initiated against the accused,” the SP added.
In the Jaunpur incident, chief minister Yogi Adityanath had ordered strict action against the accused who attacked Dalits and set their homes on fire in Bhadethi village on Tuesday evening, following which 37 accused were arrested on Thursday and total compensation of over Rs 10 lakh was given to the victims. Taking note of the incident, Yogi had ordered invoking NSA and Gangster Act against the accused and departmental action against the SO Sarai Khwaja for failing to control the situation.