Members of the Gurjar community in Meerut held a mahapanchayat in Kazipur on Sunday and denounced the government’s “one-sided” action against BJP leader Vikul Chaprana in the trader assault case, citing political motivation.
Chaprana, the suspended vice-president of the Meerut district unit of the Bharatiya Kisan Morcha, a wing of the BJP, is a Gurjar.
Chaprana and his three associates have been arrested for assaulting local handloom merchant Satyam Rastogi in Tejgarhi on October 19 over a car parking dispute and forcing him to rub his nose on the ground. The video of the incident had gone viral.
The mahapanchayat on Sunday passed a resolution to launch a movement in support of Chaprana, the prime accused in the case, and against the BJP if he and his three aides were not released soon.
“We are hurt by the government’s one-sided action against some members of the Gurjar community. We can’t allow this to happen. We will blacklist the BJP leaders and prevent their entry in our localities,” Rahul Gurjar, who took part in the mahapanchayat, told reporters.
Rastogi had gone to a restaurant with a friend, who had parked his car outside the office of local BJP MLA and minister of state for energy Somendra Tomar.
“When we came back, we found Chaprana’s car parked just behind ours. We requested Chaprana to remove his car so that we could leave, but he started hurling
expletives at me. He and his friends assaulted me and broke the car screen,” Rastogi had told reporters a day after the incident.
Chaprana’s aides Happy Bhadana, Subodh Yadav and Ayush Sharma were arrested and sent to jail when a local trader association threatened to hold protests against police inaction. Later, Chaprana was arrested for breach of peace but managed to secure bail the same day.
In the video that surfaced on social media, Chaprana was seen saying in Hindi: “Somendra Tomar is my brother and your father”.
As anger started to build among the trading community and locals over the incident, the police rearrested Chaprana on Friday on the charge of intentionally insulting a citizen, taking law and order into his own hands and breach of peace. He was sent to judicial custody for 14 days.
The government suspended local police station in-charge Sheelesh Kumar Yadav and withdrew sub-inspector Gaurav Singh and constables Chetan Singh and Brijesh Kumar from active duty. Sources said the cops were present at the spot when Rastogi was being publicly humiliated.
In their bid to pacify the Rastogi community, a powerful and rich section of the society, Meerut MP Arun Govil and other BJP leaders had condemned Chaprana’s action and demanded stringent action against him and his friends.
Ravindra Singh Gurjar, president of All India Gurjar Samaj, said: “The incident was blown out of proportion. Both sides were equally responsible for the situation, but only one side was punished because Chaprana is a Gurjar. He was granted bail, but the BJP leaders started doing politics against their own colleague because of internal conflicts. Three youths arrested earlier are students and should also be released immediately.”
“We will put up posters in the Gurjar-dominated villages, prohibiting the entry of BJP leaders there,” he threatened.
