Five police personnel, including two women constables, were injured in Meerut when they were attacked by family members of a cattle trader, Akram, against whom complaints of stealing two buffaloes were lodged. In the melee that ensued, Akram escaped.
On Wednesday night, the police from Incholi police station went to Lavad town in Meerut to arrest the cattle trader.
According to local sources, the police party in plain clothes did not know there was a wedding in the family and a large number of relatives had assembled in the house. The police were in for a shock as, when they tried to take Akram for questioning, they faced stiff resistance from the family. Stones were pelted at the police and women tore off policemen’s clothes, forcing them to leave the spot.
“Akram and his father Aslam used women as shield and they managed to get Akram freed from police custody. We had to rush in more force from other police stations to control the situation,” said SP (Rural) Avinash Pandey who rushed to the spot with SP (City) Akhilesh N. Singh.
Mr. Pandey said Akram, who has several complaints of not returning the borrowed money against him, managed to escape but the police have arrested Aslam and 10 other members of the family under IPC Section 307 (attempt to murder), Section 147 (rioting), Section 504 (intent to breach peace) and Section 341 (wrongful restraint), among others. Sections 3 and 7 of Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act 1984 have also been invoked. “The police personnel who got hurt are out of danger but some of them have received head injuries as they were attacked with sticks,” he said. Mr. Pandey added the case did not have any communal dimension as most of the complainants against Akram were Muslims.
