Ghaziabad: Kanwariyas damage ‘police’ vehicle on Delhi Meerut Road, third incident in five days
The incident occurred near Duhai on Delhi Meerut Road in the morning when a Bolero car bearing a ‘police’ sticker allegedly brushed passed past several Kanwariyas
Dozens of angry Kanwariyas on Monday damaged a ‘police’ Bolero SUV on Delhi Meerut Road after its driver allegedly brushed past pilgrims near Duhai in Ghaziabad, said police, adding that the vehicle accidentally entered the lane reserved for Kanwariyas from Muradnagar to Ghaziabad.
The police said the incident took place near Duhai on Delhi Meerut Road on Monday morning when a Bolero car bearing a ‘police’ sticker and fitted with sirens, allegedly brushed passed past several Kanwariyas walking towards Ghaziabad city.
Several videos of the incident were also shared on social media. In one of the videos, Kanwariyas could be heard chanting and vandalising the Bolero using sticks, bricks and baseball bats. Later, many of them joined together and overturned the vehicle in full public view.
HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the videos.
Police said the Bolero involved in Monday’s incident was driven by Muradnagar resident Avnish Tyagi.
“The SUV was driven by Tyagi, who is a driver for the power corporation’s vigilance department. We have come to know that the SUV entered the lane reserved for Kanwariyas from Muradnagar and brushed past Kanwariyas near Duhai. After that, angry Kanwariyas damaged the vehicle. Police teams rushed to the spot and pacified the pilgrims,” said Abhishek Srivastava, assistant commissioner of police, Kavinagar.
There is heavy deployment of civil police, traffic police and also volunteers from the civil defence on the 6km stretch from Muradnagar to Duhai to regulate traffic and also the movement of pilgrims.
Deputy commissioner of police (city) Rajesh Kumar said the Bolero just brushed past the Kanwariyas and none suffered any injury.
“The Kanwairyas got angry upon this. The police made efforts to stop him… but the driver seemed to be in an inebriated state. He was arrested later. He was booked for rash and negligent driving,” the DCP said.
The Delhi Meerut Road sees heavy movement of Kanwariyas from Haridwar and the Meerut-Ghaziabad lane is reserved exclusively for them.
This was the third act of violence by Kanwariyas in Ghaziabad since the pilgrimage season began on July 22.
On July 25, several of them allegedly beat up Pravesh Kumar, a contractual worker, at Muradnagar canal area when he asked the Kanwariyas not to sit on a fence he was erecting alongside the canal.
Two days later on July 27, dozens of angry Kanwariyas beat up a Honda City car driver and later ransacked his car in a similar fashion in Muradnagar. The police maintained that the car entered the lane reserved for Kanwariyas from Modinagar and drove till Muradnagar where the incident took place.
In this connection, the police booked the car driver and maintained that the driver was suspected to be in an inebriated state.