On Wednesday, all the coaching centres in and around Tappal town in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh district pulled their shutters down. This is after most of these centres faced scrutiny over the violent protests against the Centre’s Agnipath scheme.
According to the reports, the Aligarh Police arrested 11 operators of the coaching centres on the charges of inciting the students to participate in the violent protests against the Agnipath Scheme. The arrested persons includes Sudhir Sharma, the owner of one of the biggest coaching institutes of Aligarh, Young India Coaching Centre.
The owners and operators of army recruitment coaching centres across Uttar Pradesh were under the scanner after the Police found that the arrested rioters are linked to several coaching centres. The police learnt that the centres were allegedly involved in provoking students for violent protests against the Agnipath military recruitment scheme. The Police then listed all the coaching centres and began keeping watch on them.
The Police have so far arrested 76 accused across Aligarh and 68 have been given custody. Of 76 arrested, 11 have been identified as operators of coaching centres.
There are around 2,200 coaching centres for the army and other recruitments operational in the state. The coaching centres claim to train the aspiring youngsters for a range of competitive exams including the Army, Staff Selection Commission, Railway, UP Sub-Inspector, UP Police Constable, National Defence Academy, Air Force, and UP Teacher Eligibility Test, and more.
The Aligarh Police on June 18 also released photos of protesters who stoked violence in the Tappal area and torched a bus and a police post in Jattari amid massive protest against the Agnipath scheme. The miscreants ransacked properties and pelted stones in Aligarh. They disturbed the law and order in the area further by setting the police post-Jattari on fire. The SSP and other police officers strived to save themselves as the violent protesters continued to pelt stones and glass bottles at them.
Releasing the photographs of the violent mob, Aligarh police had announced a reward for those who identified them. Following the union government’s unveiling of the Agniveer scheme in cooperation with all three armed forces, throngs of ‘youth’ protesters rushed to the streets and vandalized public property under the guise of ‘protests’ and marches. So-called armed forces aspirants damaged public property, set fire to trains, and brought life to a standstill in various Indian states.
In Uttar Pradesh, violent protests were executed in Varanasi, Firozabad Amethi, Ballia, Mathura, Agra, and several other areas. The rioters raised slogans against the scheme and demanded its repeal. They set a bogey of an empty train on fire and also vandalized a few other trains in Ballia, Firozabad, and Varanasi.
The protesters also reached the Agra-Lucknow Expressway and the Yamuna Expressway and damaged the buses on the way. Reportedly, four buses were damaged due to stone pelting on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway, and eight vehicles were set ablaze on the Yamuna Expressway. Protesters also set a coach of an empty train on fire in Ballia, where police lobbed teargas shells to disperse them and took 100 people in custody.
So far, the UP Police has registered 34 FIRs against the miscreants and arrested around 387 people from various parts of the state. Of 387, 76 have been arrested from Aligarh and 145 have been booked under Section 151 (arrest to prevent the commission of cognizable offenses) of the CrPC. Others arrested have been booked under various IPC sections, including rioting and damage to public property.
