Ferozabad, A Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU - Bhanu group) leader along with his men have been booked for allegedly driving into a private primary school in a convoy of 15 SUVs, firing shots and vandalizing property while nearly 300 students were in the premises.
The incident took place at a school in Ferozabad's Rajwali area under Narkhi police station on Saturday.
The school owner Jabbar Singh, in his FIR, has named farmer leader Bhanu Pratap Singh, Ram Pratap Tikait, Harsh Brijwasi, Gaurav Pratap Singh and 15 other unidentified armed men for allegedly barging into the school and attacking it in the afternoon.
The farmer leader and his men have been booked under IPC sections 147 (riot), 148 (riot with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 307 (attempt to murder), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
Jabbar Singh, 56, told reporters, "On Saturday afternoon, a cavalcade of 15 SUVs led by BKU leader Bhanu Pratap Singh and his men came to our school from Awagadh. The men were armed with pistols, revolvers, guns, clubs and iron rods. When I inquired about the purpose of their visit, they turned violent without provocation. They fired multiple shots in the air. Neither I nor any family member had any enmity with Bhanu Pratap Singh or his men. But for no reason, the men vandalized our school property and fired bullets in front of the students. We asked the teachers to immediately lock the classrooms. A few teachers and some students broke down on seeing the violent behaviour of the men."
Singh further alleged that when the men were vandalizing the school property, local police did nothing.
"It was my school bus staff who intervened and snatched a couple of weapons including a licensed pistol and a double barrel gun, from the men before they fled," said the school owner.
Sources said that Jabbar and his son had allegedly reprimanded a heavily drunk man known to the farmers union leader.
Brijesh Kumar Singh, Station House Officer of Narkhi, said, "An FIR has been lodged. We are probing the matter to understand the sequence of events. A team is searching for the farmer leader and his men."
Last year in February, the BKU (Bhanu group) leader, armed with rifles and lathis, had broken the toll boom of Agra-Lucknow expressway and allegedly threatened employees.