Yogi's Hindu Yuva Vahini leaders arrested on rape charges, beating cops

Notwithstanding wide spread criticism for virtually becoming a law unto itself, the Hindu Yuva Vahini (HYV), an outfit formed by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, continued to indulge in lawlessness.
 
Around the time, when Adityanath was patting his government on its back on completion of 100 days in office in the state, three leaders of HYV were arrested in Bareilly after being booked for alleged gang rape in state's Bareilly town, about 250 kilometres from here, on Tuesday.
 
According to the police sources here, those arrested included the Bareilly division president of the Vahini Jitendra Sharma, city unit chief Pankaj and another worker of the outfit.
 
Police said that the arrests were made after an FIR was lodged by a woman, a resident of Ganesh Nagar locality in the town.
 
The complaint alleged that the Vahini leaders barged into her house on Monday night after an argument with a member of her family and assaulted and gang raped her.
 
As the news of the arrest of the Vahini leaders spread, a large number of activists of the outfit reached the police station and allegedly created a ruckus there. The Vahini leaders allegedly also assaulted a senior cop at the police station, sources said.
 
Incidentally it is not the first time that Vahini activists had assaulted the cops. Earlier also there had been reports of Vahini workers thrashing police personnel.
 
A few days back an old man, identified as Ghulam Ahmed, a resident of Meerut district, was beaten to death by alleged members of HYV for allegedly helping two lovers, who hailed from different communities, in their elopement.
 
Vahini members had earlier publicly assaulted a Muslim youth and dragged him to the police station accusing him of what they termed 'love jehad' (Muslim youths trapping hindu girls pretending them to be hindus).
 
Last month scores of HYV activists had barged into a church in Maharajganj district during a prayer and assaulted the priests there alleging that they were ''forcing'' people to convert to Christianity.