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The action against the farmer leaders came as Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava alleged that several of them made inflammatory speeches and were involved in the violence.

NEW DELHI: A day after violence during the tractor parade, the Delhi Police has named 37 farmer leaders, including Rakesh Tikait, Yogendra Yadav and Medha Patkar, in an FIR that mentioned charges of rioting, criminal conspiracy and attempt to murder among others, officials said.

The action against the farmer leaders came as Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava alleged that several of them made inflammatory speeches and were involved in the violence.

Police said that the role of farmer leaders will be investigated in connection with the violence that left 394 security personnel injured and a protestor dead.

So far 25 FIRs have been filed, they said.

According to the FIR registered at Samaypur Badli police station against unknown persons, the protestors robbed the official pistol with 10 rounds of ammunition along with two tear gas guns during the violence.

The farmer leaders named in the FIR include Medha Patkar, Yogendra Yadav, Darshan Pal, Gurnam Singh Chanduni, Rakesh Tikait, Kulwant Singh Sandhu, Satnam Singh Pannu, Joginder Singh Ugraha, Surjeet Singh Phool, Jagjeet Singh Dalewal, Balbir Singh Rajewal and Harinder Singh Lakhoval.

Those found guilty would be punished strictly, an official said.

The FIR mentions multiple IPC sections, including 307 (attempt to murder), 147 (punishment for rioting) and 353 (assault/criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 120B (Punishment of criminal conspiracy).

In one of the FIRs, a Delhi Police cop claimed that some protestors tried to kill him by ramming their tractor into the barricades.

A police official claimed that number plates of some tractors were hidden during their rally.

Addressing a press conference, Shrivastava claimed farmer unions did not follow conditions set for the rally that was supposed to be held from 12 PM to 5 PM with 5,000 tractors and accused their leaders of betrayal.

He alleged that some farmer leaders like Satnam Singh Pannu and Darshan Pal gave inflammatory speeches.

Thereafter protesters broke barricades.

By January 25 evening, it became clear that they were not keeping their words.

They brought forward the aggressive and militant elements who occupied the stage and delivered provocative speeches, he said.

The farmer leaders alleged that “anti-social” elements had perpetrated the violence to “torpedo” their peaceful agitation against the farm laws as part of a “conspiracy”, and demanded a probe.

According to police, 394 police personnel were injured while 30 police vehicles and 428 barricades were damaged in the violence.

DTC driver Praveen Kumar suffered injuries in the riot and was admitted at ESIC Model Hospital, Basaidarapur, it said.

The FIR said that the protestors and their leaders, with their pre-planned objective of not following the mutually agreed route and the timing of the commencement of the so-called parade of the protestors and disrupting the Republic Day parade, resorted to the incident.

Their gathering was also in violation of the COVID-19 guidelines.

Police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse the protestors.

However, the mob started throwing back the tear gas shells towards the police, the FIR stated.

The national capital witnessed clashes between protesters and police during the tractor parade by farmers on the Republic Day to press their demand of repealing three new agri laws.

Das, soon after being entrusted with the task of Bihar unit of INC after Shakti Singh Gohil, has started reviving the party political stature with a slew of initiates.

PATNA: Now, in a bold move, Bihar Congress in-charge Bhakat Charan Das on Thursday said that no person with criminal or communal cases on their name will be allowed to take membership in the party.

Making it mandatory, Das has asked the party leaders holing posts right from state headquarters to district and block levels not to allow the entry of the people with criminal backgrounds or charged with crimes related to communalism and atrocities against people of weaker sections and women.

Issuing this advisory through a short clip of video, Das said: “Make a proper inquiry about anyone wishing to join the party before granting the primary membership.”

Das, soon after being entrusted with the task of Bihar unit of INC after Shakti Singh Gohil, has started reviving the party political stature with a slew of initiates. He has travelled across many districts including Vaishali and Muzaffarpur to have direct interaction with party leaders and sharing the ways to strengthen the party in the state.  

In the 2020 assembly elections, 19 MLAs of the party have been elected in alliance with the RJD and the left parties.

Siddaramaiah said Sudhakar was running the crusher on a leased patta land at Kallaganguru and was given the C Form, or the licence, to run the crusher unit on April 12, 2019. 

SHIVAMOGGA: Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah, who visited the Hunasodu blast site near Shivamogga on Wednesday, demanded an inquiry into illegal stone mining in Shivamogga district by a sitting judge of the High Court and said he will raise the issue during the Assembly session.Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa and district in-charge minister K S Eshwarappa should take the responsibility for illegal stone mining in the district and the death of six people in the recent blast, he said. He demanded a compensation of Rs 5 lakh and more to the families of the deceased, besides registering a murder case against crusher owner Sudhakar. 

Siddaramaiah said Sudhakar was running the crusher on a leased patta land at Kallaganguru and was given the C Form, or the licence, to run the crusher unit on April 12, 2019. Quoting the police, he said the supplier from Andhra Pradesh himself delivered the explosives to Sudhakar.

“Sudhakar had neither informed nor obtained licence from the police, revenue or mines and geology departments to bring the explosives. None of the official know how the explosives detonated. The police suspect that it may have occurred when the explosives were being transported to another location,” he said. 

The truth will come out only if an inquiry is conducted by a sitting High Court judge. “The inquiry should reveal how many benami quarries are running in the district. If they were allowed during the Congress government, they too should be probed,” he said. 

There are 97 crushers and 76 quarries as per official records. “Only 23 quarries have permission to carry out blasts, while others are doing it illegally. Is it possible for such activities to run without the notice of the CM and district in-charge minister? All those running illegal quarries belong to the ruling party,” he said. 

BELAGAVI:  Hitting out at Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray for raking up the boundary issue again, Belagavi district in-charge minister Ramesh Jarkiholi on Wednesday said, “It is Shiv Sena’s agenda to provoke and mislead people. After failing on all fronts, Thackeray and Sena are raising the issue to gain people’s sympathy.’’Thackeray, launching a controversial book on the boundary dispute in Mumbai on Wednesday, said, “We will not rest until we win the boundary dispute case. If the long-pending issue is not resolved during this (Maha Vikas Aghadi) government’s tenure, it will never be.”

He alleged that Marathi-speaking people in border areas are being subjected to atrocities and said Marathi-majority areas in Karnataka should be merged with Maharashtra.Jarkiholi said that leaders from across parties in the state are united on the boundary issue and there is no need to panic.Textiles Minister Shrimant Patil, who hails from Sangli in Maharashtra, said that the boundary dispute is a closed chapter, but some leaders are keeping it alive for political gains. “The popularity of Maharashtra Ekikarana Samiti has waned. The Samiti and its agenda have no significance in border areas,” he added.

Thackeray, on Karnataka leaders terming the book and his recent tweets on the boundary issue as contempt of court, said, “When the case is being heard in the Supreme Court, the Karnataka government renames Belgaum, declares it as its second capital, constructs a Legislature building and holds a legislature session there. Isn’t this contempt of court?”

The new 530-page book, ‘Maharashtra-Karnataka Seemavad: Sangharsh Aani Sankalp’ (Maharashtra-Karnataka boundary dispute: struggle and pledge), gives an account of the boundary dispute between the two states. 

Former CM and JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy told The New Indian Express, “It was 14 years ago, during my tenure as chief minister that we held the first legislature session in Belagavi. We had already declared it as the second capital. I remember that we worked overtime, made the preparations in 10 days flat and managed to hold the session.” In a series of tweets on the sensitive issue, he said, “(Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav) Thackeray has so many priority issues as CM to attend to. Why is he talking about this.’’ He said the Congress, which is supporting Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, should take up this issue. 

Nearly 400 policemen were injured during the tractor parade of the farmers who have been protesting against three central farm laws at Delhi’s borders since November.

NEW DELHI: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday will visit two hospitals to enquire about the health of policemen injured in the violence that broke out during the farmers’ tractor parade in the national capital on Republic Day, officials said.

Nearly 400 policemen were injured during the tractor parade of the farmers who have been protesting against three central farm laws at Delhi’s borders since November.

The home minister will visit two hospitals — Shushrut Trauma Centre and Teerath Ram Hospital — to enquire about the health of the injured police personnel, an official from the Home Ministry said.

Both the hospitals are located in Civil Lines.

The Delhi Police on Wednesday had alleged that farmer leaders made inflammatory speeches and were involved in the violence during the tractor parade by agitating farmers that left 394 of its personnel injured, as it warned that no culprit will be spared.

Addressing a press conference here, Delhi Police Commissioner S N Srivastava said farmer unions did not follow conditions set for the parade that was supposed to be held from 12 pm to 5 pm with 5,000 tractors and accused them of betrayal.

Tens of thousands of farmers broke barriers to storm the national capital on Tuesday, their tractor parade to highlight their demands dissolving into unprecedented scenes of anarchy as they fought with police, overturned vehicles and delivered a national insult hoisting a religious flag from the ramparts of the Red Fort, a privilege reserved for India’s tricolour.

From Rajpath to Red Fort, the day unfolded in scenes of contrasts.

One that Indians have seen for seven decades and the other that seared itself into collective memory with its imagery of protesters demanding a repeal of the three farm laws storming the Mughal era monument, the centrepiece of India’s Independence Day celebrations.

A protester died after his tractor overturned near ITO, one of the major flashpoints of trouble.

A bench headed by CJI SA Bobde stayed the acquittal of the accused after Attorney General KK Venugopal submitted that the judgment would set a dangerous precedent.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed a Bombay High Court order acquitting a man accused of child abuse on the ground that groping a child’s breasts without ‘skin-to-skin contact’ didn’t amount to ‘sexual assault’ under the POCSO Act.

A bench headed by CJI SA Bobde stayed the acquittal of the accused after Attorney General KK Venugopal submitted that the judgment would set a dangerous precedent.

Venugopal urged the top court to take cognisance of the High Court’s verdict that said groping a child’s breasts without ‘skin-to-skin contact’ would not amount to ‘sexual assault’ under the POCSO Act.

“It is a very disturbing conclusion. Your Lordships should take note of this. I will have a petition filed tomorrow or Your Lordships may take suo motu notice,” Venugopal said.

The top court allowed the Attorney General to file a Special Leave Petition against the January 19 verdict of the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court that acquitted an accused in the case and also issued a notice to the Maharashtra government and the accused.

The verdict was passed on January 19 by Justice Pushpa Ganediwala of the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court where it was said that there must be skin-to-skin contact with sexual intent for an act to be considered sexual assault.

The order said the act of groping falls under the definition of offence but not a sexual assault as there was no specific data as to whether the top was removed or whether he inserted his hand inside the top and pressed her breast etc.

“The words ‘any other act’ encompasses within itself, the nature of the acts which are similar to the acts which have been specifically mentioned in the definition on the premise of the principle of ‘ejusdem generis.’ The act should be of the same nature or closure to that,” the court opined while acquitting the accused under POCSO.