Questioning lack of headway by the police in the cases of disappearance of two youth hailing from Jaunsar-Bhabar region, the people from this tribal area issued a 15-day ultimatum to the police. Accusing the police of neglecting these cases, the people from the region have decided to gherao the district magistrate’s office on March 29.
Kamlesh Bhatt said, “Jaunsar-Bhabar native studying in the DAV (PG) College in Dehradun, Nitesh Joshi and Vinod Chauhan went missing from hostel in Kandoli on March 7. The police are not handling this case efficiently which is causing dissatisfaction among the family members and residents of the region. Family members and students met the Home minister and regional
MlA Pritam Singh many times seeking proper investigation into the disappearance of youth hailing from the region. However, till now the authorities have not been able to find anything about the whereabouts of the missing youth. We have staged demonstrations in Dehradun seeking action in the case but there has been no progress in the case. Thousands of people from Jaunsar-Bhabar will demonstrate at the Dehradun collectorate on March 29 ,” he said.
Nitesh Joshi’s uncle, Rajendra Joshi said that his nephew was studying in the second year at DAV (PG) college. “He had gone missing from the hostel at Kandoli on March 7. His friends and acquaintances told us that he was not involved in any kind of feud or issue which could provide motive for his disappearance,” he said.
The president of Jaunsar Bawar Development Organisation, Darshan Dobhal said that the authorities had made no progress many days after the youth reportedly went missing. He said, “During the term of the previous State Government headed by the BJP, approval had been granted for establishment of a police station in Tyuni but this has not been done so far. It appears as if the authorities do not want to facilitate enhanced police presence in the Chakrata region, keeping law and order maintenance with Patwaris in a state where the condition of revenue police is common public knowledge. All of us hailing from Jaunsar-Bhabar region, many also having studied at DAV (PG) college in Dehradun also have different political views but we have come together to seek effective action in the case of missing youth and improvement of the law and order establishment in the region,” he said.
Geetaram Gaur said that apart from the two youth missing since March 7, two other youth also hailing from Chakrata have remained missing including 20 year old Prabhu Chauhan who had gone missing from his residence on November 3 last year. Gaur said, “It appears as if the authorities are according little importance to the situation in the tribal area of Chakrata. The authorities should depute specialist police officers to work on cases of the missing youth. We warn them and demand that some concrete progress be made in the missing youths’ cases within 15 days failing which, we will be forced to intensify our protest.” The Chakrata native youth in Dehradun plan to stage a protest demonstration wearing black bands on Saturday.