By The Wire Staff
New Delhi: Police in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Gujarat have registered an FIR against 21 persons along with unknown accused over the burning of effigies of prime minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah on the occasion of Modi’s birthday on Thursday (September 17), reported Indian Express.
A day later, the Morbi district police registered the FIR on Friday (September 18) on a number of charges including unlawful assembly and criminal conspiracy.
The protests allegedly took place in Morbi district’s Jetpar, where farmers are agitating for several months against the installation of high-tension electricity transmission lines across their farms by Halvad Transmission Limited, a special purpose vehicle of Adani Energy Solutions Ltd (AESL).
The FIR was registered on the basis of a complaint by inspector Nilesh S Ghetiya of Morbi Taluka police station on behalf of the state.
“Since this village (Jetpar) is in my jurisdiction, I investigated and found that since it was the birthday of PM Narendra Modi, the residents of Jetpar village had raised slogans and burnt their (the PM’s and Shah’s) effigies to protest the same,” Ghetiya said in his complaint.
As per the FIR, 21 named accused and unknown others had “set up an illegal dome in the main crossroads of Jetpar village, in such a way that it hampered transport of essential services and goods, entered into a criminal conspiracy, and without any permissions from the administration, had formed an unlawful assembly and had violated notifications issued by the competent authority. They had also poured inflammable liquid on effigies and set fire to them, creating an atmosphere of fear, hit the effigies of the prime minister and home minister with washing paddles and raised insulting slogans against them”.
The persons named in the FIR include Nehul Dhirajlal Amrutiya, was one of the prominent leaders of the agitation in June-July.
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