Himachal BJP chief, MLA booked for attempt to murder in stone-pelting incident

Nahan: Police in Himachal Pradesh's Sirmaur have booked BJP state chief Rajiv Bindal, party MLA Sukhram Chaudhary and several others for an attempt to murder in connection with Friday's stone-pelting incident, officials said.

About 10 people including police personnel were injured in the stone-pelting incident over the alleged elopement of a Hindu woman with a Muslim man.

Talking to reporters on Monday, Sirmaur ASP Yogesh Rolta said a woman's father made a complaint to the SP on June 10, suspecting that his daughter had been abducted. A case was registered at Majara police station and frantic searches were made within the state and outside. The woman was recovered on June 14, he said.

In the meantime, he said, people from various Hindu organisations assembled at Majara on June 13 and started marching towards the house of the accused man with sharp-edged weapons. Stone-pelting started thereafter by two groups in which police personnel were also injured, he said.

"The people of both the communities were face to face, pelting stones and attacking each other with lethal weapons. Police registered cases against the miscreants and arrested four people.

"The four were produced in the court on Monday. An FIR and a counter FIR were filed by both the communities and Section 109 of the BNS (attempt to murder) was also added," he said.

Prohibitory orders were issued in four villages -- Kiratpur, Malion, Fatehpur and Missarwala - in the Paonta Sahib area till June 19 under Section 163 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) after 10 people were injured in the stone-pelting incident followed by lathi-charge on June 13 evening.

On June 4, a 19-year-old Muslim man from Kiratpur village allegedly eloped with an 18-year-old Hindu woman from the nearby village falling under the jurisdiction of Mazra police station. The woman's family members lodged a complaint with the police but even after 10 days, neither the man could be caught nor was the woman recovered.

The local people and Hindu organisations who had been protesting for the past few days, demanding strict action in the case, blocked the Nahan Paonta Highway for about an hour at Majra, 25 km from Nahan.

On June 13, as soon as the angry crowd of protesters started moving towards the house of the man, heavy stone-pelting started from the other side. The crowd retaliated and police used force.

A 36-hour dharna by hundreds of residents in the Sainwala village in the Majra area of Himachal's Sirmaur district led by Bindal was postponed on Saturday after Sirmour police recovered the abducted woman and also nabbed her "abductor".

Bindal took strong exception to the cases filed under Section 109 of BNS (attempt to murder) against him, BJP MLA Sukh Ram Chowdhary and others by the Sirmaur police. He alleged that the case was politically motivated and the government was conspiring to finish political opponents.

Addressing a press conference, Bindal alleged that the police had not taken action against the real culprits but were targeting Hindus, allegedly due to vote bank politics, and demanded registration of cases against the woman and the man for illegal marriage and conversion, and also against the persons who pelted stones on the girl's relatives and the villagers who were holding peaceful protest against inaction of the administration.

Bindal accused the police of registering a false case of breach of Section 163 of BMS with mala fide intentions as the areas covered under the notification of prohibitory orders did not include Sainwala where protests were held.

He said instead of filing cases against the man and the woman and persons who pelted bricks on the protesters, police were raiding the houses of Hindus, intimidating them and an atmosphere of fear gripped the villages.

Pointing out that a petition was filed in the High Court of Punjab informing that the man and the woman are major and have got married, Bindal said marriage was illegal as the man was 19 years old.

Further, he said, if the woman married without converting, it was not valid. If she had converted, it was again a violation and proper notice had to be given before religious conversion, Bindal argued.

A video of the woman made on June 12 has gone viral on the internet in which she said she is 18-years-old and has willingly come with Mausin Ali. "I request SP Sirmaur to give us security and I do not want to keep any relations with my family." She also requested police not to take any action in case her family makes any complaint against Mausin and his family.

Industries Minister Harshvardhan Chauhan slammed the BJP and said it was politicising the incident. He said the opposition party and social organisations must refrain from giving religious colour to such incidents.

He said police did commendable work to control the situation though they should have taken quick action to trace out the eloped couple to avoid an eruption of communal tension, he added.