Over a dozen including five police personnel were injured in the clashes. The injured locals have been identified as Dev Narayan Yadav, Mohammad Islam Khan and Saraswati Devi Shah, among others. Locals claimed that police thrashed them indiscriminately and vandalized their houses and belongings. [break]
According to Shivadayal Shah, husband of injured Saraswati Devi, a group of police stormed into his hotel and poured boiling oil over his wife.
Meanwhile, at least five policemen including one Umesh Yadav were injured when locals retaliated by pelting bricks and stones. The names of other injured policemen are yet to be confirmed.
The police had resorted to firing four rounds of tear gas shell to bring the situation under control. The injured are undergoing treatment.
On Thursday night, police had arrested locals Ganga Ram Yadav, Bijaya Kumar Mahato, Mahendra Bhagat and Ram Safal Mahato on the charge of protecting kidnappers.
Early Friday morning, hundreds of locals who thronged Dhangadhi Chowk started their anti-police demonstrations, saying the charge against the locals was baseless.
The agitating locals blocked the East-West Highway, piling up stones and burning tires. Police intervened to clear the highway and the clashes ensued.
Gupta´s life at risk
Relatives of Shambhu Gupta, who was kidnapped four days ago from Lahan, have complained that police recklessness has further endangered his life. Thursday´s arrests were made by police to free Gupta.
According to Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Rajendra Basnet, police in civil dress were deployed at Dhangadhi Chowk where the kidnappers had invited members of Gupta´s family to hand over the ransom money.
Police were aware that the kidnappers and the Gupta family had been bargaining over the ransom amount. “The kidnappers had finally agreed to free Gupta for Rs 800,000,” Basnet said. “They had demanded three million at first.”
Police had persuaded Gupta´s family to let them go with the ransom money. As per their plan, a veiled policeman pretending to be a member of the Gupta family had gone to meet the kidnappers at Dhangadhi Chowk, some eight kilometers west of Lahan.
However, the kidnappers made him unveil his face. The kidnappers, police said, all of a sudden opened fire at him on recognizing that he was a cop. The kidnappers had easily slipped out of the police cordon.
In a desperate move to protect their own lives, police personnel ran into a nearby village from where they arrested four locals.
The locals have accused the police of rounding up innocents in a fit of anger at not being able to nab the actual kidnappers. DSP Basnet had himself coordinated a special team formed to free Gupta from the kidnappers.
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