Lucknow: Gorakhpur police have arrested six persons, including retired inspector general of police S R Darapuri, in connection with a protest outside the office of the divisional commissioner (DC) in Gorakhpur on Thursday. A French national, Jean Roger, who was filming the protest, was arrested too under the Foreigners Act for violating visa rules.
Darapuri and five others were arrested for going on the rampage while taking part in the protest that was staged without permission from the authorities concerned.
Kotwali circle officer Jagat Ram told TOI that scores of people under the Ambedkar Manch had gathered outside the DC office, demanding one acre of land each for poor, landless families from Dalit, backward and Muslim communities.
The Ambedkar Manch had not taken any prior permission for the protest. “When the security staff deployed on the premises of the commissioner asked them to go away, the crowd went berserk, damaged property and misbehaved with staff,” said the officer. Senior police officers were informed and a police team, along with a PAC unit, was sent to the spot to control the situation.
Darapuri and others — Shrawan Kumar, Rishi Kapoor Anand, Ram Siddharth, Jaibheem Prakash and Neelam Baudh — were arrested under IPC sections 332 (causing hurt to public servant) and 353 (assault on public servant), section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.
Cops spotted a foreign national filming the protest. When they checked his documents, they found that he had a business visa for India from 2021 to 2031, but it was given for a specific district in Jharkhand, Dhanbad. He did not have a valid permit to visit Uttar Pradesh. “When we quizzed him why he was here, he failed to give any satisfactory answer,” said a police officer.
Gorakhpur (city) SP Krishna Kumar Vishnoi said Jean Roger had been arrested under section 14B of the Foreign Act 1946, and the French embassy had been informed.
