Chaos reign as Karni Sena vandalises toll plaza

Hundreds of members of the Karni Sena, a Rajput output from Gautam Budh Nagar, vandalised the Delhi Noida Direct Toll Plaza, demanding a ban over the release of Padmaavat movie in Uttar Pradesh, leading to a massive tail back of vehicles till south extension area on Sunday.

There was a massive traffic jam on the road leading to Delhi from Greater Noida. Following the incident, police reached the spot and controlled the ruckus. Police have arrested twelve people of the outfit for rioting.

According to the police, the incident occurred at around 2 pm when several members of the Rajput outfit reached the DND toll plaza from Greater Noida on Bikes, cars and started protesting by blocking the path. Later the protest got violent, few members of the outfit lost their cool and vandalised the toll plaza.

“A commuter made a Police Control Room call. A team reached the spot and brought the situation under control but till then they had vandalised the booth. We have arrested 12 people from the spot and detained many others for creating nuisance and rioting. We will scan the CCTV footage and arrest more people. Extra police force has been deployed across the district to maintain law and order,” said Abhinandan, Circle Officer-1 (city), Gautam Budh Nagar.

Police said the outfit blocked and vandalised several other places in the district as well.

Many commuters who were out to enjoy their Sunday were caught in the long traffic snarl caused by the protesting Karni Sena activists. Visibly angry at the poor handling of the protesters, residents squarely blamed the police.

Talking to DNA, Sonika Awasthi, a resident of Sector 37, “I was caught for more than an hour in the jam. I had made plans with my family to go to India Gate but the situation was a complete spoilsport. Not only this, it was so scary seeing all the vandalism happening right under the police’s nose. The citizens are not safe at all.”

Ankit Wadhwa, another resident of Noida said, “How could the police let a few goons hold the entire city to ransom? The police must have had prior intel inputs but it failed to act. We were stuck in traffic for more than an hour.”

Karni Sena, the fringe group that has been at the forefront of protests against Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film, Padmavaat, took out rallies and protest in Gurgaon against the same. They even blocked Sohna road and MG road. The same was seen at Ghaziabad also where people burnt effigy.

The Supreme Court had earlier this week allowed a country-wide release of the controversial movie on January 25.

Despite this, several organisations are protesting against the release and have warned exhibitors of “serious consequences” if they show the film.