The UP police has failed to arrest the ruling Samajwadi Party MlA from Kairana despite a criminal case being registered against him on May 2 for obstructing movement of trains, resulting in creating a communal riot-like situation. The incident happened on May 1 in Kandhla town in the communally disturbed Shamli district where the accused MlA had allegedly damaged railway and public property, injured police and civil personnel and disrupted train and vehicular movement and laid siege to the town.
Police said that the MlA along with about 2,000 supporters jammed the train and road movement between Kandhla and Rampur Kheri stations. They were demanding action against the railway officials for a minor incident due to which some pilgrimages suffered. Rail services were derailed for more than four hours on May 1 when the MlA and his supporters staged a dharna on the train tracks. The senior police, railway and civil administration officers tried to convince the MlA to allow train and vehicular movement but the MlA stood his ground.
The irate mob started stoning the police officers. Police had to resort to firing to disperse the mob in which a few unruly demonstrators sustained minor injuries. Police and civil administration succeeded in clearing the tracks, said the FIR. After the incident, a criminal case was registered against the MlA and about 2,000 unidentified demonstrators under section 174 of Railways Act. The MlA is quite powerful and has a criminal history as he was earlier booked by Uttarakhand police for hunting a leopard last year, said a railway protection force (RPF) officer, sub-inspector (SI) Ajay Kumar and assistant sub-inspector (ASI) MY Khan of RPF in a joint statement.