BJP demands FIR against Rajgarh collector, announces protest

The opposition BJP in Madhya Pradesh on Monday said it would launch an agitation against the Congress government over the Rajgarh incident in which two senior women officials took on some 'unruly' protesters for 'misbehaving' with them while trying to take out a pro-CAA rally by defying prohibitory orders in Biaora town.

Former MP chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan also said that the BJP will move court if a case is not registered against Rajgarh district collector Nidhi Nivedita. In the video clips of the incident on Sunday, Nivedita can be purportedly seen slapping a man and additional collector Priya Verma taking on some men who were part of the crowd in Biaora town.

Some district officials had said the pro-CAA rally was organised by the BJP despite prohibitory orders in place in Rajgarh district since Saturday night. Chouhan tweeted,

"The Rajgarh incident will prove to be the last nail in the coffin of the state government. We are going to build up a massive movement against it. We are going to get First Information Report (FIR) lodged against the (Rajgarh) Collector and if it is not registered, we are going to move court".

When contacted, Rajgarh district collector Nivedita on Monday said she was saddened by the incident taking a political turn. Speaking about the Sunday's incident, the collector said she had just "tapped" the man on one of his cheeks.

"I did not slap him despite the fact that we are empowered to dismiss an unlawful assembly by physical force. I reacted only when he abused me," she said.

When asked about not allowing the pro-Citizenship Amendment Act rally in Biaora, the collector said she had withdrawn permission to some Muslims and some Congress leaders twice to hold anti-CAA protests in the past, keeping in mind the law and order situation.

"To be just to all, I did not allow the pro-CAA rally on Sunday. "I received information after the pro-CAA rally that some people wanted to hold anti-citizenship law rally in Rajgarh district which is communally sensitive. I am supposed to maintain law and order in view of Republic Day," the collector added.

It can be recalled that communal violence had broken out in Khujner town, around 20 km from Rajgarh, on Republic Day last year, she said. The collector said 124 people were booked for defying Sunday's prohibitory order under section 188 of IPC (disobedience of an order promulgated by a public servant).

After the incident, Additional Collector Verma had said on Sunday that some men from the crowd misbehaved with herself and the collector. Verma had denied that police resorted to cane charge to disperse the crowd. The Kamal Nath government had opposed the CAA passed by Parliament. CAA provides granting citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, who had migrated to India before December 31, 2014.