Varanasi protest: CPI(ML) leader among 3 denied bail

The other 53 were booked under IPC sections 147(rioting), 188 (disobedience to order), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and 341 (wrongful restraint), police said.

“The three persons, who have not been granted bail, face additional charges and thus the court must not have found it suitable to release them,” said SSP (Varanasi) Prabhakar Chaudhary.

Anil Kumar, Circle Officer (CO) of Chetganj area from where the 56 people were arrested, claimed that police have concrete evidence against the three accused, including videos showing them leading the crowd. “The three distributed pamphlets asking people to join the protest and their phone numbers were printed on the pamphlets,” a police officer said.

Seventeen others detained on the same day from Dashashwamedh Ghat area under Section 151 of CrPC have already been released, the officer said.

While Ekta Shekhar (32) was released on Thursday, her husband, Ravi Shekhar (36), continues to be in jail due to delay in completing legal formalities. He is expected to come out on Friday. The couple has a 14-month daughter, Champak.

“My daughter is a little extra emotional and behaves differently. Every time I am away for a few hours, she starts avoiding eye contact when I return… This time I was away for 14 days. She had tears in her eyes but wasn’t crying when she saw me. It took her a few hours to come to me. Now she is behaving normal, but gets scared every time I am away from her sight,” Ekta said after reaching home.

Ekta and Ravi run an NGO, Climate Agenda, that is involved in efforts against air pollution.