Uttarakhand High Court pulls up police over Zila Parishad election violence in Nainital

Nainital, Aug 18 (PTI) The Uttarakhand High Court on Monday came down heavily on police over the violence during the election of Zila Panchayat president and vice-president in Nainital.

''Where was your police force? What were the history sheeters doing in the city? Are you deliberately protecting the criminals? Do you think we are blind?'' a division bench of Chief Justice G Narendra and Justice Alok Mehra said, pulling up Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Prahlad Narayan Meena.

The SSP assured the High Court that all the accused would be arrested within 24 hours.

During the hearing, the Chief Justice slammed the SSP and said, "Nainital is not just a tourist town. There is also the High Court here.'' The court even advised the government to transfer the SSP, though it did not give any final decision on the issue. Meanwhile, the government counsel defended the conduct of the SSP.

The matter is related to the alleged abduction of five voters of the district panchayat president election in Nainital, with their families approaching the High Court.

The court had directed that the abducted persons be produced before it. It had also ordered the SSP of Nainital and the District Magistrate to investigate the matter.

However, these five people filed affidavits on Monday saying that they were not abducted.

The court refused to hear them, showing displeasure over their conduct. The court said that these people are contradicting their own statements, so their opinion does not matter.

The court said it is concerned about the violence, while observing that it is important to make the process clean, otherwise voters will lose faith in the voting process and it will be difficult to call them to vote.

It asked the SSP and the District Magistrate to file their respective affidavits on the matter and the steps taken during this period.

The court said it will hear the case of violence on Tuesday as well, including issues related to re-polls.

On August 14, the Uttarakhand unit of the Congress had accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of kidnapping some of its panchayat members to prevent them from casting their votes in the elections for the posts of District Panchayat President and Block Pramukhs in Nainital, and had prayed for HC intervention in the matter.

There was also a scuffle between BJP workers and the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, Yashpal Arya, former Nainital MLA Sanjeev Arya and the Congress MLA from Haldwani, Sumit Hridayesh, over this.

It was also alleged that the police remained a mute spectator in this matter. This entire incident was aired live on Yashpal Arya's Facebook page.

The Uttarakhand High Court had ordered the police and administration to send the district panchayat members who approached the court to the polling booth under police protection.

The next day, the counting of votes was done under tight security and the result was kept in a sealed envelope. The result will be declared after the court's order. PTI CORR DPT RT RT