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Police have booked 33 identified people, including Pilibhit district Congress president Harpreet Singh Chaba, and 90 unidentified people for allegedly assaulting a constable and holding him captive during a protest last Thursday against the CAA and NRC at Sher Mohammad locality.
Five of the named protesters, excluding Chaba, were arrested on Saturday and raids were being conducted to arrest others, said Circle Officer (Pilibhit city) Pankaj Malik.
Dismissing the allegation, Chaba on Sunday said the police had cooked up the assault story to intimidate protesters.
The case was registered with City Kotwali police station under IPC provisions relating to rioting, voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty, causing grievous hurt to deter public servant from his duty among others, said Shridhar Dwivedi, Station House Officer of the police station.
Circle Officer Malik said 40-year-old constable Dushyant Kumar was posted at the Theka police outpost and deployed at the protest sit-in Sher Mohammad locality on Thursday. He said the protesters attacked Kumar when he objected to food being prepared for the protesters.
Kumar was allegedly held captive at a house from where he managed to escape on Friday, Malik said. He was taken to a district hospital where doctors said he was out of danger. Police said he had suffered seven injuries.
“We were earlier under the impression that Kumar was missing from duty on Thursday and he was marked absent. On Friday, when he reached the police outpost, we came to know about the matter,” said Malik. He said the police were unaware of the incident as Kumar was attacked behind the tent and they were deployed at the front.
Chaba claimed Thursday’s protest ended peacefully and he was not allowed to enter the site by police.