Deputy sarpanch among 7 booked for extortion, rioting’ on university campus

The Vadodara Rural police has booked seven persons, including the deputy sarpanch of Varnama village, for alleged extortion worth Rs 72.8 lakh, rioting, and criminal intimidation based on a complaint by a private university located in the village.

According to the FIR filed at Varnama police station, a group of “village leaders”, including the deputy sarpanch “vandalised, abused and threatened” the staff at KPGU, Vadodara (formerly BITS Edu Campus), demanding the sum towards expenditures for a drainage pipeline being laid in the village.

The FIR, filed by a staff member of the university, states that seven persons, including deputy sarpanch Vipul Nagin Patel and panchayat member Krunal Amin, barged into the university campus on June 17 and demanded a sum of Rs 72.8 lakh stating that the village had “joined the connection of the university’s drainage line” to the drainage network being laid in the village. When the staff of the university refused to entertain the demand, the accused allegedly “threatened with dire consequences and abused the staff as well as a contractor working on campus”.

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The seven accused have been booked under Indian Penal Code Sections for unlawful assembly (143), rioting (147), offence committed by unlawful assembly in prosecution of the common object (149), uttering verbal abuse [294(b)], mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees (427), putting a person in fear of injury in order to the commit extortion (385), and criminal intimidation [505(2)]. The accused are yet to be apprehended.