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Kanwariyas assault CRPF jawan in Mirzapur railway station, Yogi smells defamation plot

Four of the seven accused were minors and had been sent to a child welfare organisation. They will be sent to a home for juveniles after being produced before a magistrate

Representational image Sourced by the Telegraph

Piyush Srivastava
Published 20.07.25, 06:24 AM

Seven kanwariyas were taken into custody on Saturday for assaulting a CRPF jawan at Mirzapur railway station, a day after chief minister Yogi Adityanath praised the pilgrims and said some people were falsely maligning them.

“The CRPF jawan was waiting for the Brahmaputra Mail when a dispute arose between him and the kanwariyas,” Railway Protection Force officer-in-charge Chaman Singh Tomar told reporters.

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“The kanwariyas kicked and punched him for about five minutes. The RPF arrived and caught them.”

Tomar said four of the seven accused were minors and had been sent to a child welfare organisation. They will be sent to a home for juveniles after being produced before a magistrate.

Jawan Gautam Kumar, 35, was in uniform, sources said. A Mirzapur resident, he had been home on leave and was returning to his posting in Manipur.

Some passengers recorded the violence on their mobile phones and posted on social media.

The accused are from a village in Mirzapur and were headed to Varanasi to collect Ganga water and offer it at the Kashi Vishwanath Temple.

“We let the jawan go when the train arrived, but obtained a written complaint from him,” Tomar said.

He said the force was ascertaining whether the accused had any criminal history.

Kanwariyas have been accused of vandalising shops and blocking roads across the pilgrimage routes in Uttar Pradesh, but Adityanath on Friday hailed them as emblems of devotion, unity and fraternity.

Kanwar Yatra CRPF Jawan Yogi Adityanath
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