Protest leaves commuters harassed on city-Kurali road

Harshbab Singh

Mohali, October 20

Around 300 migrant labourers of Mullanpur Garibdas village here blocked the New Chandigarh-Kurali road at the Mullanpur barrier here on Sunday evening, causing harassment to commuters. They were protesting against the police for not providing a copy of an FIR registered in a fatal mishap case. They also held a demonstration at the Mullanpur police station.

Arvind, a commuter, said, “It took us around two hours to reach Mohali from Mullanpur. The police had diverted the vehicles to the internal roads of the village.”

“Many vehicles, including buses, heading towards Kurali were stuck as travellers were not familiar with the narrow lanes of Mullanpur. An ambulance also got stuck in the traffic jam caused due to the protest,” said Abhinandan, a local resident.

The protesters also allegedly attacked a few cars with wooden sticks, a source said.

According to eye-witnesses, though commuters were stuck near the site of the protest, the convoy of a VIP  passed by without any hindrance, courtesy police help.

The protesters alleged that the police did not provide copies of the FIR and post-mortem report to the family of a person who died in a road accident on Thursday night. The protest lasted about three hours. 

Ramu Shah, a migrant of Bihar, died in a road accident near Ratwara village, Mullanpur, after a Swift car hit his bike. He received a head injury and was rushed to the PGI where he died this morning. 

A case was registered against the car driver, Shiv Kumar Bhandari, under Sections 279, 337, 304-A and 427 of the IPC at the Mullanpur police station. The suspect is absconding. 

The victim’s family was asking for conducting the post mortem of the victim, Ramu Shah, but the PGI doctors declined to conduct it as it was holiday today. In the evening, the police managed to get the autopsy conducted at the GMSH-16.

“We failed to provide them a copy of the FIR due to some technical snag in printing reports.” said Mullanpur SHO Harmanpreet Singh.

“No case has been registered against any protester. The situation is under control now. Their demands have been fulfilled now,” said Mohali SSP Kuldeep Singh Chahal.