The student leaders against whom a case was registered on the basis of the report lodged by the executive engineer of Public Works Department Srinagar Division Suresh Chandra Tomar under different section of Indian Penal Code and SC/ST Act in connection with their stir over the Chauras bridge have got a reprieve following the stay order on their arrest till January 3 issued by Uttarakhand High Court on Thursday evening. The court ordered the stay after their lawyers pleaded that the students were to take examination on December 29. The District administrations of Pauri and Tehri and also the police of the two districts were relieved too with the stay order over the students’ arrest as the students refused to get down despite repeated pleas from the pillar of the bridge they climbed to by way of venting their anger over the bridge having no link road connecting the villages. They dismounted after they were informed of the stay order given by the court. Notably, the chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat is slated to unveil the bridge on January 1.
The executive engineer PWD Srinagar division had earlier alleged in his complaint that he was manhandled by the agitating students while he was engaged in official work on December 26. The following day had seen the students getting atop a pillar of the bridge on the side of Tehri district and they had stayed put there till late Thursday evening when they were informed of the High Court’s stay order.