Background of the Incident: During the past few months, there has been a lot of anger among job aspirants in Uttarakhand regarding cheating in government recruitment examinations in the state. Students across the state have repeatedly held street protests against cheating in state government recruitment examinations. Uttarakhand recently faced a major paper leak case in which several people who appeared in graduation-level examination using the leaked paper were arrested by the Uttarakhand Special Task Force (STF). After the Uttarakhand Subordinate Staff Selection Commission (UKSSSC) paper leak scam came into the public eye, 5 more government recruitment examinations for 770 posts were cancelled in September 2022. Details of the Incident: On February 08, 2023, a large number of job aspirants and members of the Berozgar Sangh Union, including Mr. Bobby Panwar, staged a peaceful sit-in protest at the Gandhi Park in Dehradun, demanding a CBI probe into irregularities in recruitment by the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission (UKPSC).

The protest was being held peacefully. While the protest was allowed to proceed during the day, in the evening, the Uttarakhand police brutally lathi-charged the students and forcefully removed them from Gandhi Park. The video of the police brutality in the middle of the night went viral on the internet.

(Video link attached here: https://www.abplive.com/videos/states/dehradun-unemployed- youth-stage-protest-again-protesting-lathi-charge-on-youth-2330811)

On February 09, 2023, around midnight Mr. Bobby Panwar and 12 other students were arrested and brought to Premnagar police station, after which they were taken to police station Jhajhra, Patelnagar and ISBT at night. On February 09, 2023 at 06:30 pm Dehradun police registered a FIR against Mr. Bobby Panwar, Mr. Ramesh Tomar, Mr. Amit Panwar, Mr. Sandeep Singh, Mr. Anil Kumar, Mr. Aman Chauhan, Mr. Shubahm Singh Negi, Mr. Lusun Todariya, Mr. Hariom Bhatt, Mr. Nitin Dutt, and Mr. Ram Kandawal at Kotwali Thana, Dehradun. The FIR was registered under sections of Indian Penal Code 147-Punishment for rioting, 186-Obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions, 188-Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant, 307-Attempt to murder, 332-Voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty, 34-Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention, 353-Assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty, 427-Mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees. The next day all of them got medico-legal check-up done at Prem Nagar Government Hospital and Coronation Hospital and were then sent to Sidhuwal jail, Dehradun. On February 15, 2023 they all got bail from the district court and are out on bail now. After the arrest of the job aspirants on February 09, state-wide protests and candlelight marches were held by protestors, demanding their release along with CBI to investigation in the rigging in examination for government jobs. Various social organizations and human rights organizations have issued statements and protested against the police brutality on peaceful protests in Uttarakhand.