Cops cane-charge Dalit students after their bid to reach CM’s house
LUCKNOW: Cops cane-charged Dalit students staging demonstration at the Gandhi statue, GPO, on Wednesday, when they tried to march towards the chief minister’s residence.
The Dalit students had planned the agitation under the banner of ‘Save reservation in higher educational institutions’.
On Wednesday afternoon, they reached near Gandhi statue in Hazratganj.
Reportedly, the agitation was going on as planned, but all of a sudden the students decided to head towards the CM’s residence. Cops tried to stop them, but the agitators remained adamant and despite all measures, they tried to force their way towards the CM’s residence. In order to stop them, the cops resorted to cane charge.
For around half-an-hour traffic movement at the busy Hazratganj crossing was disrupted.
It was after much effort that cops were able to control the situation and disperse the agitators from the busy Hazratganj crossing.
“We wanted to hand over a memorandum to the chief minister. So, we decided to move towards the CM’s residence. But cops cane charged us,” said an agitator.
However, the cops refuted the allegations.
“Agitators had not taken permission to take out a procession from the GPO Park up to the CM’s residence. We tried to convince them to handover the memorandum to us. But they remained adamant on taking out a march up to the CM’s residence,” said Anand Shahi, inspector, Hazratganj police station.
As a last resort we had to cane charge the agitators, he added.