Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir police in Rajouri district have booked and arrested seven persons including Sarpanch, two Panchs and a local contractor for assaulting and humiliating a father-son duo during a panchayat meeting in Sialsui village of Kalakote Tehsil in Rajouri district.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rajouri, Chandan Kohli told a local news agency that a written complaint was received from one Amjed Parvez who complained that his elder brother had verbal duel with a local contractor over the issue of road construction over their graveyard after which a panchayat meeting (about which Police was unaware at that time) was convened by local Sarpanch.
During the meeting, seven persons overpowered the complainant and his father, Mohammad Bashir and assaulted them besides humiliating them in full public view and resorted to derogatory remarks.
SSP said on the basis of this complaint, seven persons have been booked including local contractor Ajay Singh alias Billu, son of Munshi Singh, Sarpanch Mohammad Khan, son of Nabi Baksh, Panch Abdul Rashid, son of Mohammad Din, Panch Makhna son of Manni, Ranjit Singh, son of Chattar Singh, Pushpinder Singh, son of Jagdish Singh and Swarn Singh, son of Karnail Singh—all resident of Sialsui village.
He said that a case under FIR number 40/20 under sections 297/341/342/323/504/506/147 /500 IPC has been registered in Kalakote Police Station and a team of police headed by SHO Kalakote Sanjay Raina under the supervision of SDPO Nowshera Zakir Shaheen Mirza have arrested all the seven accused. SSP Rajouri further said that the matter is being investigated in a professional manner.
“There is no space for such acts in the society and action as per law is ensured and people are also requested not to pay heed to rumour mongering,” SSP further said.
Meanwhile, the victim father-son duo said that they were beaten by the accused in full public view.
Parvez alleged that after being summoned by Panch and Sarpanch to a local shrine, they held him and his 65-year-old father Mohammad Bashir and tonsured their head, “Our faces were blackened and were garlanded with footwear. Later we were paraded semi-naked through the bazaars with no one coming to our rescue. We were accused of being Pakistan sympathisers,”
“On Eid day my elder brother was on way to his in-laws’ place when he saw our ancestral graveyard being dug and road being laid through it. When he objected, he was abused and thrashed by one Ajay Singh who was building a road on our graveyard. Later he called former MLA who abused us,” Amjed Parvez a victim told The Kashmir Walla. (with inputs from KNO)
