Two days after a BJP worker was beaten up during a panchayat at the residence of a member of the Tikait family in Baghpat’s Doghat town, members of the Brahmin community held a meeting at a temple in Baraut on Sunday evening and threatened to launch an agitation if no action was taken against those named accused in the FIR at Doghat police station.
The Tikaits are leading the ongoing farmer protest against the three agricultural laws brought by the Centre.
A video of the incident went viral across social media platforms. “Saksham Sharma (the victim) is a respected member of the BJP in Baghpat and was beaten up by BKU (Bharatiya Kisan Union) workers and others during a panchayat held in the wake of a dispute over the recent election for gram pradhan. An FIR on false charges has also been filed against Saksham at Doghat police station,” Pankaj Shastri, a leader of the local Brahmin community, said after the meeting at the Panchmukhi temple in Baraut on Sunday afternoon.
The chief of the BJP’s Baghpat unit, Surajpal Gujjar, along with other BJP workers, visited Saksham at the district hospital on Sunday morning and assured that the accused won’t go unpunished. “An FIR has been filed by Saksham’s brother in connection with the attack and we hope the police will act soon,” Surajpal said.
“FIRs have been filed by both the parties in the case but no arrest has been made so far. We are investigating the case and will take strong action once our inquiry is completed,” Alok Singh, Deputy SP, Baraut, said.
Police said the BJP worker had opposed the election of Brijendra as the gram pradhan of Mujijabad in the recent panchayat polls. The pradhan was arrested on Friday in connection with the murder of local cement supplier Pradeep Atreya in Baghpat.
Upset over the pradhan’s arrest, workers of the BKU and the Samajwadi Party (SP) convened a panchayat at the residence of Rajendra Chaudhary, the nephew of the outfit’s president Naresh Tikait, in Doghat town on Friday evening. “Saksham Sharma happened to be driving by Rajendra Chaudhary’s residence with a friend when a group of BKU workers and others forced them to pull over and launched into an assault on him. They dragged Saksham to the panchayat where he was beaten up again till he fell unconscious. They also snatched Rs 30,000 in cash that Saksham had on him at the time of the incident,” read the FIR filed by Manoj, the victim’s brother , at Doghat police station.
The counter FIR filed by Manish Tomar of the BKU said the BJP worker was in a drunken state and raised a pistol at fellow members who were on their way to attend a panchayat. “We tried to placate him but he started misbehaving with us and what happened thereafter was beyond our control,” Tomar said.
He added that the panchayat was convened to decide the future course of action in connection with arrest of the Mujijabad gram pradhan. “Brijendra has been falsely been implicated in the murder of cement dealer {Pradeep Atreya). Local police officers have been harassing BKU and SP workers at the behest of the state government from the time the BJP fared poorly at the panchayat polls in Baghpat,” Tomar said.
