Five held, over 150 booked as villagers protest land survey for Purandar airport

A senior officer from Pune Rural police said, “In connection to ongoing protest against the drone survey, one offence was registered on Friday and two more were registered on Saturday night — at three at Saswad police station. The first offence registered on Friday pertains to causing heavy damages to the drone that was being used for the survey. The agitators deliberately fell on the stationary drone on the ground causing heavy damages to it. In the same offence, the protestors had locked the drone surveyor in a car at the protest site and had gheraoed the car. In this offence over 150 people have been booked. This offence pertains to incidents on Friday.”

“For incidents on Saturday, two separate offences have been registered. The first pertains to an incident in which some people on a bullock cart charged onto the police teams at high speed potentially endangering lives of the police personnel. The bullocks that were startled due the sudden chaos turned towards the protestors seriously injuring three women protestors. These women were injured as they came under the wheels of the bullock cart. In this case two bullock cart riders have been booked for attempted murder,” the officer said.

The officer added, “The third case pertains to the incident in which stones were pelted at the police team causing injuries to 24 police personnel, criminal force was used against police and government officers. In this case, the same set of over 150 persons were booked. A total of five persons have been arrested for the violence against the police.”

Explaining the sequence of events that led to clashes, another officer said, “During the protest, some people blocked the path of police cars.

Around the same time an 87-year-old woman Anjanabai Kamthe had died of natural causes at her home. The protestors started linking her death to the government’s move of undertaking drone surveys. Senior police and district administration officers took a call to withdraw the police force. While police teams were moving back, some people again released bullock carts onto the police and some women blocked the way. As the women were being moved, some villagers started pelting stones at police. To control the situation, police had to use lathi charge and discharge seven to eight tear gas canisters.”