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Protest against Agnipath: 15 held, 225 booked for violence, blocking expressway near Noida
India Today
Noida’s Gautam Buddh Nagar Police lodged an FIR against 225 agitators and arrested 15 people, who, on Friday, vandalised vehicles and blocked the Yamuna Expressway as a sign of protest against the Centre’s Agnipath recruitment scheme.
Protests against the Centre's Agnipath scheme continued on Friday, as scores of youngsters descended on the Yamuna Expressway and blocked traffic movement briefly, prompting Gautam Buddh Nagar police to lodge an FIR against 225 protesters and arrest 15, officials said.
They said eight police personnel and a driver of a privately-run bus suffered injuries in violence during the protest in the Jewar area of the district, adjoining Delhi in western Uttar Pradesh.
The movement through Jewar toll plaza between Greater Noida and Mathura-Agra was blocked for around an hour from 12 noon, they said. "Police personnel in large numbers were rushed to the protest site in view of the law and order situation," a police official said.
A traffic police official said the movement was briefly disrupted at the Jewar toll plaza due to the protests and several vehicles were diverted from Pari Chowk. Police Commissioner Alok Singh said in a statement around 1.30 pm that no highway in Noida or Greater Noida was closed due to the protests and vehicular movement was normal across Gautam Buddh Nagar.
Later in the evening, the police said in a statement that it had arrested 10 people and lodged an FIR against 225 people in connection with the protests that obstructed vehicular movement during the day.
The number of arrests was later updated to 15, according to UP ADG (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar.
"The road was blocked by some chaotic elements, protesting in unison and pelting stones. A private bus parked on the road was vandalized, eight policemen and a bus driver were injured in the incident after which the FIR was lodged at the local Jewar police station," the local police said in the statement.