Rohtak police detaining youths illegally: Villagers

Tribune News Service

Sunit Dhawan

Rohtak, April 30

Residents of Ritoli and Kabulpur villages in Rohtak district have alleged that the youngsters of the villages were being picked up and illegally detained by the police.

Residents of Ritoli, Kabulpur villages protest

The villagers staged a protest against the alleged ‘illegal’ detentions at the local mini-secretariat, which also houses the district police headquarters, on Tuesday.

The protesters, led by Zila Parishad member Jaidev Dagar, demanded that the illegal detentions be stopped with immediate effect.

On the other hand, the local police authorities maintain that a number of youths of these villages are under the influence of certain gangsters and even connected with them.

“As per our intelligence inputs, at least 100 youths of Ritoli and Kabulpur villages are in touch with notorious criminals and gangsters based in foreign countries through social media and some of them are working as their ground operators. Hence, search operations are carried out at the houses of suspects in these villages. These searches will continue in future too if linkages with criminals are not snapped. We have also appealed to panchayat members and other prominent residents to persuade the youngsters to break their linkages with criminal elements,” Rohtak Superintendent of Police Himanshu Garg told The Tribune.

Nonetheless, the protesting villagers, including a number of women, said such police action was unacceptable and had created an atmosphere of fear in the villages.

“The illegal arrests have been going on for around a month. The police teams raid the houses of villagers and pick up students in the age-group of 15-20 years without mentioning any case or assigning the reason. The police personnel also take away important documents and cash,” Dagar said.

Local social activist Rahul Dadu, who was also among the protesters, said the villagers were ready to cooperate with the police and would never support the gangsters or criminal elements.

“But such action by the police not only causes harassment to the village residents, but also creates a negative influence on the minds of youngsters,” he said.

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