Ghaziabad: The Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Keshav Prasad Maurya on Thursday accused the opposition parties for inciting violence during the demonstrations against “dilution” of the provisions for the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act on Monday, and alleged that some criminals were brought in to create stir in the state.

During his speech at Ghantaghar Ramlila Maidan in Ghaziabad, he alleged that the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress were all responsible for the violence during the Dalit protest on Monday.

There were some anti-social elements who joined the stir and turned the protests into a violent one, said Mr Maurya.

Police are trying to identify the culprits and strict action will be taken against such people.

Apart from that, he also warned that any official found guilty of corruption will be sentenced to jail.

Mr Maurya also warned that any official found guilty of corruption will be jailed.

More than 5,000 people were booked for disrupting normal life and damaging public and government properties in Ghaziabad during the protests. Nine policemen were also injured during the protests. .

The Supreme Court had on March 20 banned automatic arrests and registration of criminal cases under the Scheduled Castes (SC) and the Scheduled Tribes (ST) (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

The Apex Court had ruled that no automatic arrest can be done under the Act without prior permission. The Supreme court also said that a court can grant anticipatory bail if it finds at first that the complaint is an abuse of the law, false, motivated and intended to black mail or harass a person.

The protest was country-wide one with various Dalit groups, backed by several political outfits to put a demand for the restoration of the Act to its original form.

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