Uttarakhand’s hill area suburb Thalisain block in Pauri is on the boil as a migrant shopkeeper from Nazibabad, Uttar Pradesh made indecent video and photographs of a 20-year old local girl viral in social media forcing the girl to run away from her home. Angry local shopkeepers have threatened outside traders to evict the place in the next two days else ‘they will have to face consequences.’

Incident came to the light on Tuesday as a villager from Paithani police station area in block lodged a complain that his niece was missing and family was unable to trace her whereabouts. Responding to the complaint, Pauri SSP Lokeshwar Singh constituted a team and directed it to find the missing girl soon. Acting swiftly on SSP’s order police team was able to trace her in Kotdwar bordering Nazibabad. When the police asked her why she left home, the girl told them that a man from Nazibabad running barber shop at Thailisain market had made her indecent videos and photpgraphs viral in social media. The girl informed that fear of facing the society and the family complled her to leave the home.

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Following the girl’s revelation, the police registered an FIR against the man and nabbed him from Nazibabad on Wednesday. Learning abput the incident ,local units of the right wing organisations and Paithani traders association Vyapar Sabha protesed against the outside businessmen working in the Paithani and nearby hill areas. Vyapar Sabha gave a 48 hours bandh call to the local traders and urged the shop owners not to let their premises on rent to non locals in future. At the same time, Sabha asked the outside traders, particularly those belonging to a particular community to leave the market in the next 48 hours. Sabha chief Narendra Singh Negi alleged that traders from a particular community coming to Thailisain and Paithani are creating communal tension in the hill areas.

Negi threated to intensify the protest action against outside traders if they failed to meet the deadline for vacating the shops and leave the market. BJP’s Pauri district unit vice president Lakhpat Singh Bhandari said “Traders from a particular community coming to the hills have ulterior motives for the locals, specially the girls. This will not be tolerated as these people are trying to create communal disturbances. They will face the consequences on failure to meet the deadline to leave the area”.