Lady Deputy Collector pulled by hair during pro-CAA rally in MP, 1 arrested

One person was arrested and two others were booked for manhandling Rajgarh Deputy Collector Priya Verma during a pro-Citizenship (Amendment) Act rally in the Madhya Pradesh district on Sunday (January 19). Besides, 17 others have been arrested for the violation of Section 144 in the region, reports said.

According to ANI, a First Information Report (FIR) was registered against two persons for “hitting and pulling hair” of Verma (seen in the video below wearing a pink jacket and a blue scarf) during a demonstration in Rajgarh. It added another person was arrested in connection with the incident.

#WATCH Madhya Pradesh: A protestor pulls hair of Rajgarh Deputy Collector Priya Verma, after she hits BJP workers and drags them. The clash broke out during a demonstration in support of #CAA. pic.twitter.com/7ckpZaFBkJ

— ANI (@ANI) January 19, 2020

#WATCH Madhya Pradesh: Rajgarh Collector Nivedita prevented BJP workers from holding a demonstration in support of #CAA, in Rajgarh. (19.01.2020) pic.twitter.com/QGarsE5APy

— ANI (@ANI) January 20, 2020

It further said an FIR was registered for the violation of Section 144 during the demonstration. As many as 124 people were named in the FIR and 17 accused were also arrested, according to ANI. The rally was taken out without requisite permission from authorities, reports said.

New reports suggest Verma’s colleague Shruti Agarwal and a few police officers were also manhandled during the demonstration. Meanwhile, District Collector Nidhi Nivedita was seen in a video slapping a BJP worker, while trying to bring the situation under control.

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Three people were also injured as police resorted to lathi-charging the protesters. Collector Nivedita later told ANI that protesters had “torn clothes and pilled the hair of officers deployed in the region.”

Nivedita said the protesters pulled “one of our women officers by her hair and kicked her, besides trying to pull clothes of both women officers.” She said permission was denied to hold a rally, but still around 50-100 persons had taken out the march, violating Section 144 in the region.

“Protestors tore the clothes and pulled the hair of officers deployed in the region. I was surprised at how little the law meant to them. They were kicking the sub-district magistrate (SDM) and assaulting the officials,” the Collector added. However, the protesters alleged the police attacked them.

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