5 held for assault, abduction of plywood store manager

An old dispute between Lovely Plywood and Mani Enterprises took a serious turn, leading to the alleged kidnapping, assault and a protest that lasted for about four hours outside Lovely Sweets on Wednesday evening.

The dispute began Tuesday morning when Surat Singh, father of Manpreet Singh, had an altercation with Rajesh Tiwari, a salesman at Lovely Plywood. Hours later, a group of around five to 10 individuals allegedly stormed into Lovely Plywood’s office, assaulted manager Prithvi Chandra and abducted him in vehicles.

As per information, the CCTV footage of the incident had been handed over to the police, showing the perpetrators taking the manager against his will.

In response, the police of Division Number 6 lodged an FIR under multiple sections of the BNS, including kidnapping, assault and criminal conspiracy, leading to the arrest of five individuals, including Manpreet Singh and Amarpreet Singh, son of a local travel agency owner. The accused have been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days.

However, on Wednesday afternoon, supporters of the accused staged a huge protest outside Lovely Sweets, alleging bias and political influence in the handling of the case. The protesters claimed that it was Lovely Plywood’s staff who had assaulted Surat Singh, a 65-year-old man, and forcibly removed his turban, a deeply offensive act in the Sikh culture. They argued that no action was taken against them in this assault, which, they alleged, was overlooked due to the political connections of the plywood owner.

Slogans being raised and traffic disrupted as the police deployed heavy forces to reduce the escalating tension. Bibi Jagir Kaur, former SGPC president, also joined the demonstrators, further amplifying their demands for justice. The protest concluded at 6:30 pm after Police Commissioner Swapan Sharma assured the gathering of a thorough investigation into the matter.

Meanwhile, the police officials claimed that on the complaint of Surat Singh, an FIR has been registered against Guddu, a staff member of Lovely Plywood, however, they are examining the CCTV footage and investigating the claims of both parties.