After peaceful protest, 3 accused members of Ladakh Buddhist Association gets bail

By Stanzin Dasal LEH, Dec 05, 2017

LEH :

After the complete shutdown of all the business establishments for one and a half day on November 24 and 25, three members of the Ladakh Buddhist Association gets bail on November 25 in Leh.

The call of shut down was given by LBA demanding the release of their member including, Vice president of LBA Youth wing and two others who were arrested on November 20. The case was registered on September 6 under FIR 65/17. All the three accused were charged under Sections 365, 323 and 506 RPC.

Section 365- Kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person

Whoever kidnaps or abducts any person with intent to cause that person to be secretly and wrongfully confined, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.

Section 323 - Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt

Whoever, except in the case provided for by section 334, voluntarily causes hurt, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees, or with both.

Section 506 -Punishment for criminal intimidation

Whoever commits, the offence of criminal intimidation shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both; If threat be to cause death or grievous hurt, etc.—And if the threat be to cause death or grievous hurt, or to cause the destruction of any property by fire, or to cause an offence punishable with death or 1[imprisonment for life], or with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years, or to impute, unchastity to a woman, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, or with fine, or with both.

According to sources, the incident happened two months back when a meat shop was allegedly opened on an auspicious day of Buddhist calendar, leading to clash between the LBA members and the butcher.

Talking about the incident, Rinchen Namgyal, Acting President, LBA said, “Despite the agreement signed between Butcher association and LBA to prohibit selling of meat on the Buddhist auspicious days, one shop was allegedly opened which hurt the sentiment of Buddhist. This created a clash between the people. The members went to sort it out the matter but the person accused three members of LBA of allegedly beating him.”

Commenting on maintaining communal Harmony he said, “We always stand for communal harmony and it will be maintained in future also”, he added.

Dr. Abdul Qayum, President, Moin-ul- Islam said, “The incident happened in the context of breaching the agreement signed between the butcher association and LBA. It is definitely wrong to go against the agreement which has been followed all those years but beating the person and fuelling up the issue is equally wrong”.

“The constitution of India gives every citizen the right to live with dignity and honor. Law of the land should prevail and no one can take it in their hand”, added Dr. Qayum.

He further said, “There will be differences and issue but things will be better if we sit on one table to sort it out instead of hyping the issue and exposing it outside. We understand each other sentiments and all these years we have been setting an example of communal harmony which will be further maintained.”

When asked about the whole incident, Wasim Akram, son of the butcher said, “After offering Namaz around 7.30 pm my father went to clean the shop and at that time few people gathered and the clash began. He was taken in a car by some people on the pretext of handing him to Police station but was later brought to Chokhang Vihara where he was threatened and beaten. After registering the FIR on the same day no immediate response was shown by the police so we decided to file a petition in the J&K High Court on September 28.”

He further said, “We have no idea about the people and the car involved in the incident, it is after registering the FIR we came to know that the car was registered in the name of LBA.”

“Our fight is not with the LBA but with the people who are involved in the incident and took law in their hand”, he added.

The three accused were granted Interim bail from November 25 till 29. The court hearing was conducted on November 29.