A court in Haryana’s Hisar district on Friday sentenced four people to five years in jail for rioting and other offences during the 2016 Jat reservation agitation, reported PTI. Daljit, Raju, Suraj and Vinod, all residents of Sisai village, were also asked to pay a fine of Rs 1 lakh each.
The court of additional district and sessions judge RK Jain convicted them under various sections of the Indian Penal Code as well as under provisions of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act and the Indian Forest Act, 1927. Advocate MS Nain, who represented the convicts, said that they would challenge the conviction in the High Court, reported The Tribune.
A case was registered on February 21, 2016, on a complaint by Inspector Vidyanand against 200-300 unidentified people. According to the prosecution, the four convicts were part of the mob while others could not be identified.
They ransacked several houses and set many of them on fire in Sainipura. They cut trees and put them on roads to block traffic. The police had to use tear gas shells to disperse them.
Haryana had faced violent protests from February 18 to 23, during which 30 people were killed and more than 300 were injured. Rohtak and its neighbouring districts of Sonepat and Jhajjar were the worst affected by the Jat quota stir. Delhi, too, had felt the effects of the agitation, after Jat members brought their protest to Munak Canal, the national Capital’s main source of water.
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