Six UP Congress leaders accused of defacing CEC’s house released on bail
Six Congress leaders accused of allegedly writing slogans with black paint on the gate and outer wall of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s residence in Agra were released from Agra district jail on Sunday, a day after a local court granted them bail.
The six leaders — Mukesh Dhangar, Anil Yadav, Rajesh Kumar, Manoj Gaur, Rajesh Gautam and Pankaj Chaudhary — were arrested on September 29 in connection with the September 28 defacement incident in the Vijay Nagar area.
The court granted them bail on Saturday after the police dropped the attempt-to-murder charge during the investigation.
After his release, Congress leader Anil Yadav renewed his attack on Kumar, saying the party’s agitation would continue as long as the chief election commissioner (CEC) remained in office.
“The fight will continue as long as Gyanesh Kumar, the killer of democracy, remains in office,” Yadav said, alleging that Kumar had deprived crores of people of their voting rights.
Advocate Santosh Dixit, who represented the accused, said the police would now file its chargesheet, following which the defence would present its case and make submissions before the court.
The case stems from a Congress protest on September 28, when some party workers allegedly wrote controversial slogans in black paint on the gate and wall outside Kumar’s residence in Vijay Nagar.
Police initially invoked several provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including Section 109 relating to attempt to murder, along with charges pertaining to rioting, wrongful restraint, assault or criminal force against a public servant, house-trespass, criminal intimidation and intentional insult.
During an earlier hearing, the court had directed the investigating officer to specify the facts, injuries, medical evidence, eyewitness accounts or other material supporting the invocation of Section 109. The police subsequently could not make out the case under the provision and dropped it, according to the defence counsel.
The six accused furnished surety bonds of Rs 20,000 each following the bail order. The court had also expressed displeasure over the police’s handling of the case, Dixit said.
