Jat stir: 8 All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti leaders acquitted in rioting case

Hisar, April 2

A Hisar court has acquitted eight Jat leaders in a case of rioting and blocking the national highway near Mayyar village during the agitation on the demand for reservation for the Jat community in the other backward category (OBC) in 2015.

The police had registered a case against the Jat leaders on July 27, 2015 when the All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti (AIJASS) was spearheading the agitation. These leaders had blocked the national highway near Mayyar village of Hisar district which had been a nerve centre of the agitation from 2010 to 2016.

The court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Shifa has acquitted eight leaders of the AIJASS, including a woman, in the case nearly seven-and-a-half years after its registration.

Those acquitted include state general secretary of AIJASS Mahender Singh Poonia, state spokesperson Rambhagat Malik, other leaders Subedar Omprakash, Kuldeep Ladwa, Jogender Mayyar, a retired SDO Satbir Singh, Suresh Koth and a woman leader Nirmla Dahiya.

They were facing charges under Sections 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly), 283 (causing danger, obstruction or injury in any public way or line of navigation), 341 (wrongful restraint), and Section 8 of the National Highways Act.

Advocate Sunder Singh Beniwal, who defended the accused in court, said that according to the police FIR, officials of the All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti had blocked the national highway on July 27, 2015.

During the investigation of the case, the police arrested these eight persons and presented a challan against them in court. During the hearing of the case on Saturday, the court acquitted all eight accused. AIJASS office-bearer Jogender Mayyar alleged that for the past eight years, the state had agreed to withdraw these cases, but the government reneged on its promise. Now, the court has released eight leaders of the Jat reservation movement.

The AIJASS had launched the agitation in 2010 on the demand for bracketing Jats in the OBC category in Haryana. Mayyar village located on the Delhi-Hisar national highway, about 15 km from Hisar, had been the epicentre of the agitation for six years. Jat leaders used to block the highway and also the railway track in this village often.

Blocked NH near Mayyar village

On July 27, 2015, leaders of the All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangharsh Samiti had blocked the national highway near Mayyar village of Hisar district which had been a nerve centre of the agitation from 2010 to 2016.