Tension prevailed in Shamli, about 400 kilometers from here, as hundreds of people took to the streets and damaged vehicles and indulged in heavy stone pelting in protest against the alleged gang rape of a woman in the town by five unidentified youths.
Police had to resort to lathi charge and tear gas shells to disperse the mob that set ablaze some vehicles and also squatted on the rail track disrupting movement of trains, according to the officials here on Monday.
The authorities imposed section 144 in the town to maintain peace and deployed heavy contingent of police and PAC, sources said.
Two Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs, Hukum Singh and Suresh Rana, were arrested for inciting the mob.
The local administration later externed the two leaders from the district, according to the sources. BJP has warned of a massive agitation if the culprits are not arrested soon.
Five youths had allegedly gang raped a woman when she was on her way to a relative’s home in the town on Saturday night with her two friends. The three were to go to a town in Haryana but had missed the bus.
The five youths intercepted their cycle rickshaw and took the woman to a house where they took turns to rape her. They later threw her on the road. A case was registered with the police the same night but the culprits are still untraceable.
Incidents of rape have risen sharply in the state since the Samajwadi Party government assumed power after last year’s Assembly polls.
Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had directed the police to check incidents of rape but so far they have not been able to deliver.
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