Crowd assaults home guard, vandalize police station in UP's Kanpur; 5 held

A ruckus broke out during a Kanwar Yatra procession in Kanpur, leading to the assault of a home guard, a security guard and a student volunteer, and vandalism at a police station by ''anti-social elements'', officials said on Tuesday.

Five suspects have been arrested in connection with the assault and the vandalism at the Shivrajpur police station in the early hours of Monday, they said.

Some media reports claimed that the assault and vandalism were carried out by Kanwariyas. However, this has not been mentioned in the FIR lodged on the complaint of a home guard and as seen by PTI.

According to police, the issue began when a youth, who was running, slipped and fell at the Ganga Road Tiraaha area, prompting home guard Uma Shankar, security guard Ram Kishor and student volunteer Vishwajeet to rush to his aid. They were on overnight duty in the area.

However, dozens of ''anti-social elements'', some of them on motorcycles, mistakenly assumed that the three were responsible for the man's fall and allegedly assaulted them, the police said.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Bilhaur) Amarnath Yadav said, ''The crowd beat up the home guard, the chowkidar and the student, all of whom were on official duty. They later chased them to the Shivrajpur police station, where the situation escalated.'' At the police station, the anti-social elements allegedly misbehaved with officers, hurled abuses and vandalised property.

''They broke the glass panes of the women's help desk, smashed the windows of the police response vehicle, and damaged other vehicles parked in the station premises,'' the ACP added.

The entire episode was recorded on CCTV cameras installed at the police station and nearby roads. Based on the footage, police identified 20 suspects involved in the violence and registered a First Information Report (FIR) against them.

''Five people have also been arrested under preventive sections to avoid the possibility of further law and order issues. They have been sent to jail,'' ACP Yadav said.

Police have registered a case under relevant sections of the *Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita* for rioting, voluntarily causing hurt, causing hurt to deter a public servant from duty, assault or criminal force on a public servant, mischief causing damage to property, and intentional insult to provoke breach of peace, along with provisions of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)