Employees of the Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam today restored the power supply to the district after the police registered a case against 18 villagers of Bilaspur, who had allegedly beaten up the SDO and caused injuries to an employee of the local substation. However, employees of the electricity department kept away from work in the morning demanding the arrest of the accused and also held gate meetings in front of various substations in the district. The police has registered a case against 18 persons, including 12 unknown persons, under Sections 147, 149, 332, 353 and 427 of the IPC. Tension further mounted in the town after a large number of villagers gathered in the grain market demanding quashing of the FIR registered against the villagers. They were later joined by workers of the Indian National Lok Dal. Claiming that the farmers were being falsely implicated in the case, they blocked the traffic in front of the power substation for at least four hours. The villagers lifted the blockade after SDM R.K. Singh assured to sort out the dispute soon. The situation had deteriorated in the town yesterday after residents of several villages had blocked traffic for about seven hours on the state highway protesting against unscheduled power cuts. They allegedly beat up SDO R.J. Verma and also caused injuries to an employee, Pritam. In retaliation, power staff had suspended the power supply to the whole district demanding immediate arrest of the villagers. As a result, residents of several areas came out on the roads to express anguish over the power shutdown. The police had to use a mild lathicharge to disperse of the crowd near Fountain Chowk at 9.30 pm. Later, power supply was restored late night after an assurance from the police that all protesting villagers would be arrested soon.