A day after a case was registered against the State Education Minister Arvind Pandey for assaulting a police sub-inspector at Kundeshwari police outpost in Rudrapur of Udham Singh Nagar district, the State Congress has demanded the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat to immediately remove the Minister from his cabinet.
Terming the incident as very shameful and highly deplorable, the vice- president of the Uttarakhand Congress Surya Kant Dhasmana said that the incident shows the dismal state of law and order of Uttarakhand.
He said that since the minister is charged with providing patronage to the mining mafia and assaulting the in- charge of police post, the ‘Zero Tolerance’ government of Trivendra Singh Rawat should immediately remove him from the position of the state’s education minister.
Launching a scathing attack on the state government, Dhasmana said that Kundeswari incident comes close on the heels of the heinous burning of a girl in Pauri district, rape of a girl in Uttarkashi district and abduction and subsequent murder of a girl in Prem Nagar.
“They reveal how things are on the law and order front in Uttarakhand,” he said and added that the people with criminal mindset are occupying power with the government fawning on them.
The state Congress spokesperson, Garima Dasauni said that the minister should be arrested for attacking a on- duty police officer. She said that the incident of hundreds of people barging into a police post along with a cabinet minister is very serious.
“This happened despite the prohibition order under section 144 being in force across the entire state on account of the election. The incident shows the political culture of the BJP,” she said.
On Tuesday afternoon, over 100 people, said to be involved in mining business, had stormed into the Kundeshwari police post.
Here, in the presence of the state education and sports minister , the crowd had allegedly assaulted the police post in-charge. The incident had been sparked off by police impounding four vehicles involved in transporting quarried materials.
In fit of anger following the police action , a large crowd of people had gathered at Kundeshwari police post.
Some of them had reportedly not just verbally abused the police post in-charge, Arjun Giri Goswami but also manhandled him.
The police officer had to lock himself in a room for protection from the mob.
The situation had improved after some senior police officers reached the site.
A case had been registered against 19 persons, including the cabinet minister, and 100 other unnamed persons for obstructing government work, violating model code of conduct and defying section 144.