Hundreds of women from Palia village in Azamgarh district are on an indefinite sit-in in protest against the alleged police brutality which followed after a dispute on June 29.
They are demanding justice and action against the guilty.
The protesting women, most of them from the Dalit community, have alleged that a posse of policemen arrived on the night of June 29, partially bulldozed three houses, vandalised and ransacked furniture and household items, looted jewellery and cash, and assaulted women and children present in the house.
It may be mentioned that on June 29 last, a group of locals from the village Palia confronted another villager, Anand Vishwas, alleging that his son Littan was harassing a girl in the locality. Later, Munna Paswan, gram pradhan Manju Devi's husband, arrived at the scene. According to locals, after the police were alerted about the confrontation, two constables reached the spot.
Anita Devi, Munna's cousin, said "They tried to forcibly whisk Munna away to the police station. When he resisted, one of the policemen held him by the collar and slapped him. This irked the locals, who then attacked the cops."
Late at night, the police allegedly returned with reinforcements to carry out a raid.
"They returned with a bulldozer, a hammer and heavy reinforcements. Fearing a police witch-hunt, men from our families fled, but they were not even remotely aware that the police would go after their houses and families. They didn't even spare a 3-month-old infant who was injured during the vandalism and is currently hospitalised in a critical condition," alleged Anita Devi.
The police have reportedly filed three cases in the incident. The first FIR in the case has been registered against 12 identified and about 10-15 unidentified suspects on the complaint of Littan Vishwas, who alleged that locals brutally beat him and his father, who tried to intervene.
The second FIR, which has been registered under stringent sections of the relevant laws, including attempt to murder, on the basis of a complaint by head constable Mukhraj Yadav. It has been filed against 16 named and 100 unidentified suspects for attacking the police team. Both these FIRs have Munna, his relatives and other villagers named as suspects.
Abhinesh Singh, a local, has complained of seeing “outsiders” trying to bulldoze houses of Munna Pawan, Swatantra Paswan and Rajpati Paswan, which is why the third FIR has been registered.
The local police, however, claimed that the vandalism and ransacking was done by the owners, in a bid to pressurise the police into not taking further action or pursuing cases registered against them.
"The two constables at the spot began filming the brawl where the quack and his son were being beaten up by Munna and other villagers. The mob objected to the police filming it and began roughing up our men. They chased one of our constables, Vivek Tripathi, for at least a kilometre and brutally assaulted him using sticks. He is admitted in a critical condition at a private hospital," said Tarkeshwar Rai, Station House Officer (SHO) at Raunapar police station.
"They (Munna and others) got their dilapidated houses demolished by their own men to pressurise police in not taking action in the cases of assault registered against them," he said, adding that the matter was already under investigation under the supervision of senior officers and action would be taken against the guilty persons.