UP family says cops stormed wedding event, looted cash; police deny claims

A pre-wedding function in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur turned chaotic as cops interrupted the festivities. The family alleged the some policemen, who said they were looking for a criminal at the spot, stormed the venue, assaulted them and stole cash from the event. However, police called the allegations baseless and said they were forced to enter the spot as the criminal was hiding there.
A family member, who was present at the event, claimed that the police officials misbehaved with them, hit them with sticks, and took away Rs 3 lakh in cash.
A video showed the distressed family members after the incident. Visuals showed toppled chairs, paper plates strewn on the ground and discarded food on tables at the spot.

“The policemen misbehaved with us. My brother had money in his pocket. They also hit him with a stick and took away the money as well. My niece’s wedding will take place tomorrow. So, there was a function here. Police came and they ruined all the food and the catering was worth nearly Rs 2 lakh,” the man alleged.
“I gave Rs 3 lakh in cash to my niece’s maternal grandfather. But, the police took that and fled. We want justice and we want to know why this happened to us. We have no enmity with anyone. The police should not have barged into our function. If justice is not served, we will approach the District Magistrate,” he said.
However, Rampur Superintendent of Police (SP) Vidyasagar Mishra rejected the allegations and said a criminal, identified as Hanif, tried to escape the village and hid himself at the pre-wedding event to avoid getting caught by the police.
“We wanted to arrest the criminal who had gone missing. Our team reached the spot where the function was happening. Some allegations were made by people and they were false and baseless. The area officer visited the spot and investigated. Action will be taken based on whatever facts are there,” Mishra said.
Later, in a tweet, the Rampur Police said, “The police had gone to Dhanupura village to arrest accused Hanif named in the case registered at Bhot police station. To avoid arrest, Hanif entered the programme/crowd going on nearby and the police could not find him. False and baseless allegations have been made with the aim of creating pressure on the police when they reached the spot.”