Stones pelted at civic staff removing Haren Pandya posters

People pelted stones when civic authorities tried to remove posters of slain former Gujarat Home Minister Haren Pandya, whose wife Jagruti Pandya is contesting Gujarat polls against ruling BJP's Rakesh Shah, from Ellisbridge assembly constituency.

On Wednesday, Deputy Taluka Development Officer (TDO) H R Shah lodged a complaint in Ellisbridge police station against unnamed people for obstructing the civic staff to do their duty and for breaking the windshield of their vehicle.

The incident occured in the morning when some local residents of Chandranagar here objected to an encroachment removal team which began removing posters containing the picture of Haren Pandya.

"It suddenly spun out of control as supporters pelted stones and the team left the scene leaving the vehicle there," the police said.

Reacting angrily over the issue, Jagruti alleged local authorities have now begun to treat Haren Pandya as an "encroachment".

"For the past ten years, the BJP government has done nothing to bring justice to my husband and now when I have brought my fight for justice to the poeple of his constituency, authorities have started treating Haren Pandya as an encroachment," she said.

"So, why don't they remove every religious poster or of some social cause put up everywhere in the city? Did they see only those posters which has my husband's photo on it," she said.

"In those posters, there was no political writing and were in no way considered election posters.

Yet, the authorities were removing it," she said.

In the FIR, it was also alleged the civic staff had been removing posters which were there without prior permission.

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