Cases of sedition and treason should be registered against the protesters who allegedly threw chappals and black flags on his car carrying the national flag during his visit to disaster-hit Thunag in Himachal Pradesh's Mandi, state Revenue Minister Jagat Singh Negi said on Sunday.
More than 50 people were booked for wrongful restraint, unlawful assembly and rioting after they greeted the revenue minister with black flags and ''go back'' slogans, and tried to stop his vehicle in the Seraj Assembly constituency in the Mandi district on Friday.
Mandi police on Saturday registered a case under sections 126 (2), 189 (2), 190, 191 (2) of the BNS, officials had said.
The BJP workers in Janjheli and Thunag areas of the Seraj Assembly constituency of former chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, which suffered massive damage and losses in the recent disaster, had protested on Friday and allegedly even threw black flags and shoes on the minister's vehicle.
Addressing a press conference, Negi said that a few hundred protesters in the Thunag Bazaar had a "vested interest" in shifting of College of Forestry and Horticulture as it affected their business but the students and their parents don't want that the college be shifted to Thunag from Sundernagar.
The former chief minister opened the college but neither provided adequate infrastructure nor the hostel, and the students were staying as paying guests, he alleged.
He said it was unfortunate that Leader of Opposition Jai Ram Thakur and state BJP president Dr Rajiv Bindal have not even condemned the "insult" to the national flag.
When MLAs can be booked for sedition for stopping the vehicle of the governor with national flag, why others committing similar offence should not be booked, he asked and maintained that the law is same for all.
Seraj BJP mandal president, Bhishm Thakur, had said that black flags were shown to the minister in Janjheli and workers raised "go back" slogans.
The BJP leaders had alleged that protestors were manhandled by the police, cases were registered against them and accused the government of "suppressing" the democratic rights of the people.
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