More than 30 villagers arrested for holding government personnel hostage in Jind

JIND: In the village of Singhana, Safidon segment of Jind district, on Thursday, a team from the Safidon electricity department, which was there to detect electricity theft, was arrested. hostage and attacked by the villagers. Of the seven team members, three managed to escape. THE villagers collected written statements from the detained employees, stating that they had not caught anyone stealing electricity in the village and would not return to the village for this purpose, the employees claimed.
It is understood that the police arrived at the scene when someone informed the police via 112 and rescued the employees. The injured employees and villagers were treated at a civilian hospital. The police are investigating the matter.
Villagers said electricity workers entered a house without complaint and started filming the women. Every house in the village has a meter on the poles outside, so they had no reason to enter the houses. They said entering someone’s home without permission or complaint was wrong. The villagers said the electricity workers were angry with them.
A few days earlier, an important electricity theft A case involving a resident named Dilbagh had been registered. The area manager, Sitaram Singh, has been angry with him since the villagers demonstrated in front of the power station to change the electricity schedule. Since the protest, employees have been entering homes without orders from higher authorities or complaints. They filmed the women in inappropriate situations and pushed them around. Hearing the women’s screams, a large number of villagers rushed to the scene. The villagers then went to the Safidon police station and filed a complaint against the employees, demanding action, they added.
However, Sitaram, the foreman in charge of the Singhana area, said he left with his team on orders from the authorities. His team included JE Ram Avtar, ALM Kuldeep, linemen Rajeev and Vinod Verma and pilot Raju. They detected electricity theft in two locations and recorded it on video. This angered the villagers, who then took them hostage and attacked them. Villagers deleted the videos from their phones and an employee’s phone was broken. They took written statements from the employees, threatening them with dire consequences if they ever returned to the village.
Police investigating officer Deepak Kumar told TOI that the police had booked villagers under sections 121(1) 127 (2) 132, 190, 221 and 324 of the NBS. Actions are being taken accordingly, he added.