Police today allegedly resorted to lathicharge to disperse a group of protesters here demanding inclusion of gangrape charges in the murder case of a woman.
They also arrested 18 protesters, including 13 females under section 151 (unlawful assembly) of the IPC.
Superintendent Police (city) Om Prakash, however, denied the repots of lathicharge and said the protesters were merely taken into preventive custody to lift blockade off the road.
Nearly 40 protesters had blocked the main road in front of the police station. When the protesters refused to lift the blockade even after repeated assurances by senior officials of a probe into the matter, we had to forcibly evict them from the street, the SP said.
The protesters were demanding to include the charge of gangrape in a case related to the death of a girl in Lakhipura last Tuesday.
The body of the girl was exhumed on Wednesday and sent for medical examination. A case of murder was registered by police on the complaint of victim's father.
Police has so far arrested five people in this connection.
If the medical report confirms rape, we will also include the rape charges along with that of murder in this case, the SP added.
