RAIPUR: A CJM court of Balodabazar on Tuesday, September 10 rejected the bail petition filed by Congress MLA, Devendra Yadav who has been in custody for more than a fortnight in connection with the Balodabazar rioting case.
Hearing on the petition filed by the Congress lawmaker from Bhilai Nagar constituency, the court while turning down his bail plea observed that this court lacks the power to grant him a bail into this matter.
The rejection of Yadav’s bail petition arrived on the heels of court extending his judicial remand till September 17 on Monday, escalating troubles for the two-time Congress legislator who has been lodging in prison since August 17.
According to the details of the case, the Congress leader who is considered close to the top leadership of the party has been booked under section 153 (Prompting enmity between groups), 120B (Criminal Conspiracy), 147 (Punishment for rioting), 353 (Assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty), 307 (Attempt to murder), and others sections of the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984.
The filing of the case against Yadav, led the police sending him notices to appear before the police, however the cops eventually apprehended him on August 17 from his Bhilai residence on charges of alleged non-cooperation in the investigation.
Refuting the allegation Yadav in a statement however said that he did appear before the police for questioning and the Congress workers are being falsely implicated in the case.
Yadav’s arrest triggered a major protest from the opposition Congress party who called a state wide agitation opposing Yadav’s arrest on August 29. Further the top leadership of the party also trained guns on the Vishnu Deo Sai led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government for vendetta politics.
However, Congress’ allegations was categorically denied by the state’s Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai, who remarked that Yadav is not an ordinary person and if the police has arrested him then they must have thought it thoroughly.
Balodabazar rioting incident
An agitated mob of protestors on June 10 set ablaze several government offices and hundreds of vehicles in joint collector’s office premises by breaching the security installments over vandalism of the ‘Jaitkham’, a sacred symbol associated with the Satnami community near Amar Gufa in Mahkoni village of Giroudpuri on the intervening night of May 15-16.
The protest was called almost a fortnight after the members of the community expressed their disagreement over the initial arrest made by the police in connection with the vandalism episode at Amar Gufa on May 15-16.
The arson incident occurred after community members had assembled in the Dussehra ground to mark their protest against the vandalism episode on June 10. However, a significant chunk of the protestors soon barged in the collector office premises after their agitation escalated dramatically and became uncontrollable.
The demonstrators vandalized vehicles on their way to the collector’s office, where they set ablaze dozens of four-wheelers parked in the premises. Hundreds of two-wheelers stationed near the premises were also vandalised by the mob who had a brief altercation with the police personnel trying to contain the violence.
Later on, the officials informed that initial estimate of the damage done during the violence in the collector’s premises stand at around Rs 12 crore with 240 vehicles partially or fully damaged during the violence.
More than 170 people including of Kailash Navrange, the state president of Bhim Krantiveer, Gopi Bande, State President of the Bhim Krantiveer Chhatra Sangh, and Sandeep Kosle, Vice President of the same outfit, Rajkumar Jangde, state president of Bhim Army, National Student Union of India (NSUI) member, Suryakant Verma, Mohan Banjare, a government teacher and an alleged key conspirator of the violence and others have been so far nabbed by the police into the case.
