The police have submitted a chargesheet against BSP leader and former MLA Yogesh Verma and 89 others who were arrested in connection with the violence during the Bharat bandh called by Dalit organisations on 2 April.

Yogesh Verma, who is married to Meerut Mayor Sunita Verma, was arrested on 2 April along with his supporters for instigating violence during the Bharat bandh called by Dalit organisations to oppose the ruling of the Supreme Court on the SC /ST Act.

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Circle officer of Daurala area and member of Special Investigation Team (SIT) Pankaj Singh said the chargesheet against Verma and 89 other accused has been filed in the court of the additional chief judicial magistrate. Large-scale violence was reported on 2 April in different parts of western UP.

A police post was torched in Shobhapur area of the city and many vehicles were set ablaze by the mob which also pelted stones. Police had to lathicharge them and fire in the air to bring the situation under control but a demonstrator Ankur died of bullet injury.

The police registered 98 cases of violence and rioting against over 700 named and 5000 unknown personal in different police stations of the district . Also 198 accused including Yogesh Verma were arrested and sent to jail.

SHO Kankerkhera Deepak Sharma, Sub Inspector Devendra Kumar and Jitendra Kumar had lodged a complaint against Verma and other accused on charges of arson, creating obstacles in discharging government duties, rioting, firing on police, damage to government property, threatening and giving provocative speeches.

CO Singh said Verma had a history sheet no 143-A in Daurala police station but somehow police had stopped monitoring him. The charge sheet has been reopened now in Pallavpuram police station, clubbing all previous and current cases.

SSP Manzil Saini described him as the mastermind behind the violence in Meerut and said all the accused would be booked under National Security Act.

Mayor Sunita Verma, however, called the action against her husband politically motivated. She said he had been falsely implicated to take political vengeance.

Sunita had won the mayoral election defeating BJP’s Kanta Kardam. “My husband was being targeted because BJP lost the mayoral election,” she said.