Two FIRs registered after Bidadi survey chaos
The Bidadi police have registered two First Information Reports (FIRs), invoking stringent sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including attempt to murder, against farmers
The Bidadi police have registered two First Information Reports (FIRs), invoking stringent sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including attempt to murder, against farmers and their leaders in connection with the face-off with survey officials at Mandalahalli on Monday. The first FIR was registered based on a complaint by the driver who ferried the survey officials, while the second was based on a complaint filed by Murali, an inspector attached to the Ramanagara Rural police station. The FIR states that the protesting farmers abused the survey officials and attacked them with brooms and stones, injuring several officers. In his complaint, the inspector alleged that the farmers injured and attempted to kill both the surveyors and him. The FIR follows the incident in which women farmers at Mandalahalli intercepted officials who had gone to conduct the Joint Measurement Committee survey for the proposed Greater Bengaluru Township Project, popularly known as the Bidadi Township Project, and attacked them with brooms.
The farmers demanded the order authorising the official survey. However, officials of the Greater Bengaluru Development Authority (GBDA) maintained that the team had gone to survey only those lands whose owners had given permission for the project. R. Srinivas Gowda, Superintendent of Police, Bengaluru South, said the police would not tolerate farmers attacking government officials and preventing them from carrying out their duties. Following the incident, FIRs were registered at the Bidadi police station. The police have invoked BNS Sections 189 (unlawful assembly), 126(2) (wrongful restraint), 352 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 351 (criminal intimidation), 109(1) (attempt to murder), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 132 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging his duty), 133 (assault or use of criminal force against any person), and 74 (assault or criminal force against a woman with intent to outrage her modesty).
Meanwhile, farmers staged a protest at Bairamangala village on Tuesday. “We won’t stop the protests. We have been protesting peacefully for over 480 days. It turned violent only because the officials tried to impose a survey,” said Bhagya, one of the protesting farmers. Terming the incident an atrocity against the Bidadi farmers, Chief Whip of the Opposition in the Legislative Council N. Ravi Kumar urged the State government to issue a comprehensive white paper on “all aspects” of the Bidadi Township, including the extent of government land available, the private lands proposed to be acquired, and lands meant for cattle grazing. I was not in Bidadi Yashavantha T., State general secretary of the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha (KPRS), claimed that his name had been included in the FIR despite not being in Bidadi on Monday.
The BriefWire