Greater Noida: After abduction claim of family turned false, 170 booked for road blockade

GREATER NOIDA: A day after TOI reported about the 21-year-old woman’s family faking story of her abduction, the Badalpur police has lodged a first information report (FIR) against 18 named and 150 unnamed people.
The FIR also names the grandfather and the father of the woman.
A missing complaint was lodged by the woman's family despite her elopement with a youth from Gonda, the village Pradhan Nagendra and the block development council member Sundar.
The FIR has been lodged under stringent sections - rioting, criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of duty, wrongful confinement, obstructing a public servant from discharge of duty, criminal intimidation, intentional insult for breach of peace, epidemic act and 7 CLA Act.
It states that the accused persons indulged in blocking the NH-91 and refused to get up till the time the girl is recovered and aggressively sat on the road when police officers asked them to move away from the national highway.
It adds that their actions resulted in the national highway getting closed completely and disruption of traffic troubled school-going children, patients, women, etc.
The villagers who have been made accused in the case, however, objected to the lodging of the FIR and said they themselves were “misled” by the woman's family.
The villagers said they were only trying to help the family.
They said that the traffic jam could have been avoided.
Many people who were not present at the spot have been named in the FIR, they added.
Virendra Khari who is one of the named accused in the case told TOI that the villagers merely tried to help the family.
“Three children come running to you and cry saying that their sister has been abducted. What will you do? We only tried to help but the family misled the villagers and the neighbourhood. If this is the reward for helping someone in need, no one will report a murder or accident or any other mishappening with someone in future. I was not even present during the time of protest,” he said.
Master Moujiram from Dujana village, whose name also figured in the FIR, said the villagers could not be blamed for the act as they were fuming because of the incident which is said to have been wrongly reported.
Harish Chander, DCP (central Noida), however, said the FIR pertains to road closure and whether or not the villagers knew about the family’s intention was a matter of investigation.
“This FIR pertains to the blockade of the national highway. The road was blocked and movement of traffic was affected,” he said.
Villagers, however, said that mere road closure could not have attracted stringent sections like wrongful confinement, assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty, voluntarily obstructing any public servant in the discharge of his public functions, criminal intimidation, etc.
The woman has alleged threats from family.
The Surajpur court allowed her to be with her lover in Gonda and directed Noida police to provide police protection for her commute.
The woman who was produced before the court on Saturday expressed fear for her life and asked the court to allow her to be with her lover in Gonda.
She was sent to Gonda under police protection later on Saturday.