After Noida workers’ protest, police to form a dedicated industrial cell

The detailed proposal will be prepared by the Additional Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) and the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Headquarters), Commissionerate Gautam Buddh Nagar, and will be sent within three days to the Uttar Pradesh Director General of Police, Uttar Pradesh Home department for approval and regularisation. “Additionally, a detailed Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) will be prepared and issued by the Additional Commissioner of Police (Law & Order),” said an official.

The announcements come in the wake of a series of protests staged by workers in Noida earlier this month over issues like wage hike, working hours and better overtime pay.

On Monday, a court in Noida also granted the police two-day remand of three accused — Aditya Anand, Himanshu Thakur and Satyam Verma — arrested for allegedly inciting violence during such a protest on April 13.

The court stated that no mental or physical harassment shall be caused to the accused, and that the defence counsel may observe the interrogation from a reasonable distance without interfering in the investigation.

The court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM), Gautam Buddh Nagar, Virek Agrawal, mentioned that the duration of the police custody is from 9 am on April 29 till 6 pm on April 30.

In its application seeking police custody, police said, “The three accused played a pivotal role in instigating the aforementioned incident. There is a strong likelihood of obtaining crucial evidence related to the incident through the recovery—based on the disclosures made by the accused—of Satyam Verma’s laptop and CPU; Himanshu Thakur’s mobile phone; Aditya Anand’s mobile phone; records pertaining to their organizations, materials used to incite the incident and inflammatory literature prepared and distributed among the labourers could be recovered from the accused which will help in the investigation.”

The defense counsel, however, stated that on April 19, accused Aditya was physically tortured by the police when he arrived in Noida from Tamil Nadu, and that the grounds of arrests were not informed. “The police beat him with a belt and made him sign blank papers.”

However the court stated that “it is clear from a review of the documents that the grounds for arrest were stated in the arrest memo and that they were also informed of the grounds for arrest through a separate notice signed by the accused, and remand was granted by the remand magistrate on April 19. Therefore, the accused’s contention that they were not informed of the grounds for arrest is baseless.”

“Regarding the remaining objection raised today, that they were tortured, it is noteworthy that the accused first appeared before the learned remand magistrate on April 19. Their counsel filed a petition seeking cancellation of remand, which has been disposed of, and remand has been granted. Accordingly, the objection is dismissed,” the order stated.

The judge also observed that the evidence collected by the investigating officer and statements given by the accused indicate that prima facie, items utilised under investigation (mobile phones, etc.) can be recovered from locations by the accused. “Therefore, in such circumstances, it appears appropriate to grant police custody remand for the accused persons,” the order read.

Meanwhile, according to sources, bail applications of around 15-20 accused were rejected on Monday.