Half a life on the run, man nabbed after 3 decades for vandalism at VS
In 1991, Congress workers were accused of breaking the gate of the Vidhan Sabha and vandalising the premises
A Congress worker, who was then around 30 years old and booked for rioting at the U.P. Vidhan Sabha in 1991, was nabbed by Lucknow police from Aligarh after nearly three decades at the age of 62 on Tuesday, the police said on Wednesday.
The accused Paramjeet Singh has been on the run for a period spanning almost half his life. He was booked with eight others in the case in 1991, the police said. As per the FIR, Singh, along with others forcibly entered the Vidhan Sabha premises, shoved the police personnel deployed on duty and damaged government property by vandalising the windows of government cars, overhead lights and other things.
“In 1991, Congress party workers broke the gate of the Vidhan Sabha and vandalised the premises, in which a case was filed by the then SHO Sarojini Nagar. A warrant was issued by the court in 1997 and since then, he has been absconding,” said Hazratganj station house officer Vikram Singh, adding that the accused had been absconding since his name surfaced in the 1991 case.
“The accused is a farmer and has land in both Aligarh and Punjab. He would often come to protest. All others in the case have been arrested and three of them also died. The man was held before but he managed to escape,” said the SHO. “The police were continuously raiding in search of him. He was staying at Aligarh Civil Lines and was arrested on Tuesday after a tip-off from an informer. The accused is being presented before the court,” the SHO added.
According to an old copy of the FIR, which HT has seen, the incident was reported on February 2, 1991. The complainant Ashok Kumar Yadav, then SHO Sarojini Nagar, booked a total of nine identified persons, including Paramjeet Singh, under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code, including 147 (rioting), 353 (assault or threat to public officials), 452 (trespass), 427 (mischief causing loss or damage) and Section 7 of Criminal Law Amendment Act among others. In the FIR, Yadav said that he was on duty at Gate No. 3 of the Vidhan Sabha building and later his duty was changed to Gate No. 1 of the building. “At around 1.30 pm, a crowd of 30-40 Youth Congress workers came to Gate No. 1 from the direction of the Capital tiraha. They opened the gate by pushing and shoving and entered the Vidhan Sabha premises by pushing us. We tried a lot to stop them. Some people broke the wire fence and entered inside.”
In the FIR, he said, “At the same time, 25-30 people came out from the spur of the Vidhan Sabha building while vandalising things. Seeing all this, the CRPF force came running and tried to arrest the Youth Congress activists who had entered and were vandalising.”