47 held, 2000 booked for violence at Haathras railway station

The police has arrested 47 persons and booked around 2000 others in connection with violence at Haathras railway station where 11 coaches of a Delhi-bound train were torched.

"Cases have been lodged against 2000 people of which 81 have been named. Raids were carried out at different places in which 47 people had been arrested so far," superintendent of police SRS Aditya said here.

The FIR had been lodged under various sections of the IPC including disrupting government work, arson and loot, he said, adding that the train traffic on Kanpur-Delhi route had resumed last night.

Eleven coaches of Delhi-bound Mahananda Express were set on fire yesterday by local residents during a violent protest against closure of a nearby railway station, disrupting rail
traffic on the route for more than eight hours.

Demonstrators, protesting winding up of a station near Haathras, hurled bricks at police who fired in the air and swung batons to disperse them.

Security forces including PAC personnel had been deployed in the area to avert further trouble, the police said.

Additional director general of police (law and order) AK Jain, who visited the area, had directed the local officers to take stern action against trouble makers.