UP: Over 400 activists booked over gherao, dharna at SSP office in Muzaffarnagar

Muzaffarnagar (UP), Jan 4 (PTI) Police have booked more than 400 activists of the Bharatiya Kisan Union for allegedly disrupting official work and blocking roads using tractors after they gheraoed the SSP office here and staged a dharna on Saturday evening, an official said.

The BKU activists staged the protest demanding a ban on RDF (refuse-derived fuel) used in paper mills, which they claimed create pollution. Later, the dharna was called off on Saturday evening.

Superintendent of Police (City) Satya Narayan Prajapat told reporters on Sunday that a case has been registered under sections 191 (rioting), 132 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of duty), 126 (wrongful restraint), 351 (criminal intimidation), 352 insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 223 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.

The officer said over 400 Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) activists, including the youth wing state president Digambar Singh and divisional president Thakur Kushal Vir, have been booked for the "illegal gherao" of the SSP office and staging a dharna to press their demands.

They have also used objectionable remarks against police, the officer added. PTI COR NAV ARB ARB