Express News Service
LUCKNOW: With the tally of protestors arrested in connection with the anti-Agnipath stir so far by the UP police going up to 1120 with 595 more arrests during the past 24 hours, the police officers are busy making assessment of damages to the public property during the protests as they intend to make the protestors pay for it.
As per the police department sources, the district police authorities and field officers were directed to initiate a recovery process after identifying the troublemakers who indulged in the destruction of public property during the stir.
According to Additional Director General of Police ( Law and Order) Prashant Kumar, the police would be generous while dealing with the student protestors keeping their future in mind but making clear that those who indulged in the burning trains, damaging buses, police vehicles, police outposts, chowkies, ransacking the shops, would have to pay for the damages.
The ADG claimed that the recovery would be one after the identification of the trouble makers through photographs and video footages. The identification process was already on in districts including Ballia, Varanasi, Aligarh, Mathura, and Agra districts where major violence was reported. “Recovery notice would soon be served on those who were involved in vandalism, arson, and damaging public property,” said another senior police official.
UP State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) chief general manager, Technical, Sanjay Shukla confirmed that the corporation was asked to assess the damages to the buses during the protests. He claimed that around 40 UPSRTC buses were destroyed on different routes. Similarly, the railway officials are also evaluating the damages to railway property during the stir.
However, of the total 1120 protestors held so far, 618 were arrested for violation of Section 151 of the CrPC for causing a nuisance, and 502 were arrested for arson and vandalism across 19 different districts, including 12 eastern UP districts.
As many as 603 protestors were arrested on the charge of violation of Section 151 of CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure) for causing a nuisance and were released later.
Sharing further details, ADG (Law and Order) said a maximum of 90 people were arrested from Mathura and booked in five cases of arson and vandalism, 66 people were arrested from Aligarh in six cases, 54 people from Jaunpur in 11 cases, and 53 people were arrested in Chandauli in seven cases, including one case registered with Government Railway Police (GRP).
Similarly, 49 people were arrested from Ballia in three cases including one case of GRP, 40 people in four cases of Mirzapur as well as 40 others in two cases of Ghazipur, 36 people in nine cases under the Varanasi police commissionerate, 18 people were arrested in three cases of Deoria and 10 people each in one case each registered at Gautam Buddh Nagar and Firozabad.
The ADG said nine people were arrested in two cases in Agra, eight people in one case in Fatehgarh, seven people in a case in Mau, four in one case in Sultanpur, three each were arrested in one case in Mainpuri and one case in Gorakhpur while two others were arrested in two separate cases of Hardoi. No arrests were made in one case each registered at Sant Kabir Nagar and Ayodhya, he added.
He said the arrests under 151 CrPC were made in eight districts, including 159 protestors in Ballia, 316 in Jaunpur, 58 in Aligarh, 27 in Mathura, 25 in Mau, 24 in Hardoi, five in Ayodhya and four in Sultanpur.
