Police did not react in time despite warnings, ignored intelligence

GREATER NOIDA: The situation in Greater Noida may not have spiralled out of control on Monday had the police not failed to read public mood and taken pre-emptive steps to stop violence. Shockingly, the police even ignored the intelligence that warned about rising tempers in the area.

There was palpable anger on the ground and two Nigerians were beaten up by people on Sunday night. Yet the police failed to read the signs and didn’t disperse the people gathered at Pari Chowk to protest the death of 17-year-old Manish Khari on Monday even as their numbers grew leading to a traffic jam.

A case of assault was filed on the complaint of Nigerians in the Sunday night incident against unknown assailants, but a senior cop dubbed it as a ‘stray’ incident.

Police officials had information that anger was rising among locals against Africans since the past week.

Sujata Singh, the superintendent of police (rural), said, “The indicators were communicated to us by intelligence and thus we spiked up police vigil, but we cannot dedicate a police person with every Nigerian living in Greater Noida.”

The district administration only permitted assembly of 50-60 people for the candle march on Monday, Singh said, but over 1,000 people showed up. “As the candlelight march started gaining numbers, we diverted all Greater Noida police personnel to Pari Chowk. The people sitting at the junction were at large peaceful, but violence erupted inside Ansal Plaza, 50 metres away from the junction.”

“The chain of events that started on Monday evening are not merely a law and order problem, but a socio-cultural issue between the Africans and locals,” Singh said.

Anger among locals against African nationals started building up when Class 12 student Khari went missing on Friday evening. Khari, who showed up the next day, died on Saturday allegedly due to drug overdose.

The residents in NSG society started protesting against foreign nationals after the boy went missing on Friday.

The residents started accusing the foreign nationals of kidnapping the boy and pressed Kasna police to search the premises of Nigerian nationals in NSG Society.

The residents raised fear of Nigerians ‘killing and eating’ the boy and searched their flats including their refrigerator.

On the residents’ persistence, police picked up some Nigerians and released them after questioning, as they found nothing suspicious in their statements.

Speaking about the cases registered against the Nigerians into the death of Manish Khari, Samuel T Jack, the president of association of African students in India, said, “The Nigerian students are falsely implicated in the matter without any evidence.”

The release of the foreign nationals fuelled public anger.

Yet the police did not issue any safety advisory for the African nationals.