Ludhiana: Sarpanch, aides hold four Dalit students captive in classroom, thrash them.

The accused allegedly assaulted the students of the Government Senior Secondary School in Gorsian Kadar Bakhsh village in Ludhiana’s Sidhwan Bet area with a stick and hurled casteist remarks; the staff of the school came to their rescue, but to no avail

By Tarsem Singh Deogan, Ludhiana ,

The sarpanch of Gorsian Kadar Bakhsh village in Sidhwan Bet area, and his aides allegedly held four Dalit students captive in their classroom and thrashed them with sticks, aware of the matter said.

They added that the police rescued the Class 12 students at least two hours later from the Government Senior Secondary School in the village.

The accused allegedly assaulted the students with a stick and hurled casteist remarks. The staff of the school came to their rescue, but to no avail. Later, the police intervened and rescued the students.

The Sidhwan Bet police registered a first-information report (FIR) against Jagdev Singh (sarpanch) and his aide Surjit Singh. Police said some accused are yet to be identified.

According to police, the incident comes as some girls had accused the students of stalking and harassing them. A case of stalking and harassment was registered against the students on Saturday.

Sidhwan Bet station-house officer (SHO) inspector Jasvir Singh said that according to a complaint by one of the students, the sarpanch and his aide barged into the classroom on Saturday even as a class was on. The accused made the teacher and other students leave the room and bolted the door from inside, the complainant said.

The complainant also alleged that the accused told the students that they would not let them study in the school. He added that the school staff tried to rescue them, but the accused did not open the door. Later, they called the police control room.

The inspector added that a case was registered under sections 115 (2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 127 (2) (wrongful confinement) and 190 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in persecution of common object) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and a hunt is on to arrest the accused.

The SHO added that earlier on Saturday, the police had five minors and their unidentified aides for allegedly stalking and harassing schoolgirls.

The case was lodged following a complaint from a Class 11 girl. The girl had accused the boys of stalking her and her cousins for the past three months and harassing them.

After she shared the ordeal with her parents and the accused sarpanch, the sarpanch went to the school and allegedly confined the students.

Earlier, a gun-wielding woman stopped a school van ferrying at least 25 students at Samrala Bypass on July 11. The woman threatened the students at gunpoint to delete a purported video from their mobile phones, which she suspected the students had recorded from the window.

The Samrala police had registered an FIR against the woman.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times

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