Twelve persons held for violence in Azamgarh

VARANASI: Just after the violence and arson in Jaunpur district, the Azamgarh district also witnessed a large scale violence in Maharajganj area on Wednesday. The police have so far arrested 12 accused and a manhunt is on to nab seven other absconding accused.
The Maharajganj SO Virendra Pandey has been suspended for laxity in duty, and the NSA and Gangster Act have been initiated against the accused.A reward of Rs 25,000 each has been announced for information on the absconding accused.
According to reports, a group of dalits was allegedly attacked with sticks and weapons by the people of another community at Sikandarpur Ayama village in Maharajganj police station area on Wednesday evening. Several persons were injured in this attack. The injured persons were admitted to the hospital for treatment.
One the complaint of Vinod Kumar, the police lodged an FIR against 19 persons under Sections 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (Negligent Act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life), 271 (disobedience to quarantine rule) of IPC and sections of Epidemic Act, SC/ST Act and Criminal Law Amendment Act.
Acting on the complaint, the police arrested 12 accused including Parvez, Faizan, Noor Alam, Sadar-e-Alam, Amir, Ashif and Suhail. Azamgarh SP Triveni Singh said that some youths of Muslim community allegedly used to harass and pass lewd remarks on the girls and women of the community. When objected, they allegedly attacked the victims in which over 10 persons were injured. He said that four teams of police have been constituted to nab the absconding accused. "Since the crime was of serious nature impacting law and order, the process of NSA and Gangster Act has been initiated against the accused,” said the SP.