Noida Authority officials assaulted during anti-encroachment drive

Noida: Three people were arrested on Monday for allegedly assaulting Noida Authority officials undertaking a drive to remove illegal encroachments here, police said.

The incident occurred in the afternoon when the team reached the Hosiery Complex, under Work Circle 7 and one of the officials was injured in the scuffle, they said.

A complaint was made at the Sector 20 police station alleging that the locals had verbally abused the officials and vandalised their machinery, a police officer said.

“A case was registered against the accused under IPC 427 (mischief) and 504 (intentional hurt to provoke breach of peace) among others and they were arrested,” he said.

Separately, the Noida Authority, which is carrying out an anti-encroachment drive, reclaimed 3,500 sq metre of land worth about Rs 55 crore in Gejha village.

“A marriage lawn was being constructed on it illegally. About 1000 tonne of TMT bar was being used to construct the marriage hall which had steel structure on the outer side, central air conditioning system, false ceiling etc.,” an authority official said.

“About 40 truck loads of debris was cleared after the demolition of the illegal structure,” he added.

This is not the first time when such an incident took place in Uttar Pradesh. In June, two jawans of the Army were assaulted by the owner and workers of a dhaba (streetside restaurant) in Baraut Tehsil of Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district. The jawans hailing from Village Sujti had come to eat at the dhaba on Saturday.

On some issue not reported so far, the jawans entered an argument with the dhabaworkers after which they were assaulted with lathis.

Circle Officer Ramanad Kushwaha had said, “The two Army personnel were eating at the dhaba. They got into an argument with a waiter that led to fisticuffs between them. After this, all the staff of the dhaba gathered at the spot of the brawl and attacked the two jawans.”

“The police arrested eight employees of the dhaba and registered a case. Further investigations are going on,” Kushwaha had said. He had also added that the police would arrive at a conclusion only after hearing out both the parties to the dispute.

The FIR was lodged under Section 307 dealing with an attempt to murder and Section 323 which deals with voluntarily causing hurt.