For ‘trying to force out Muslim vendors and assaulting them’ in Dehradun, police book members of right-wing outfit

“During this gathering, they incited people, giving a communal angle to (the case) and delivering provocative speeches, urging locals to assault and evict tenants from other communities living or running businesses in the area,” the FIR states. “They then marched from Nathuwawala to Donali while vandalising signboards and banners of shops owned by individuals from other communities.”

On February 5, around 4.30 pm, the outfit members used social media to organise another public gathering at Donali Trijunction, where they gathered locals and provoked them. “They threatened landlords and shop owners to evict tenants from other communities immediately, stating that if not done within seven days, they would forcibly remove them,” said the FIR filed on the complaint of sub-inspector Sanjay Rawat, in-charge of Balawala Outpost.

Later the same day, they forcibly evicted Muslim vendors from the weekly bazaar near the primary school in Lower Tunwala. They allegedly declared the market as “Sanatani”.

“They also verbally abused and assaulted vendors from other communities, warning them against setting up shops in the future and threatening to kill them if they returned… Additionally, several videos were made in which inflammatory speeches were recorded,” the FIR stated.

It said that the provocative speeches created communal tension in the area. The FIR named Bhupesh Joshi and his associates Vaibhav Panwar, Ajay Captain, Acharya Vipul Bangwal and Rajendra Singh Negi, a retired Army man, and others as accused.