JAIPUR: Nine people, most of them policemen, were injured here in violence triggered by a fatal axe attack on a hawker, police said.
A mob pelted stones at a police station and damaged vehicles after a mentally challenged man attacked a hawker during an argument in Jaipur's Khonagorian area, they said.
A former BJP MLA was also hurt, police said.
But it was not immediately clear whether it was during the violence at the police station.
The stone-pelting left seven policemen and a media person injured.
Rafiq, 45, had an argument with Munna Vaishnav, 40, and he attacked the hawker in a fit of rage, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Jaipur-East) Rahul Jain said.
After the axe attack, a group of people turned violent and pelted stones at a police station. They damaged the window panes and a vehicle, the police officer said. Police had to resort to baton charge to disperse the mob.
A case had been registered against Rafiq and additional force had been deployed in the area to maintain law and order, the DCP said.
Jain said some people tried to give the incident a communal colour and efforts are on to identify them.
The situation is under control, he added.
The officer said the injured former MLA Kailash Verma was admitted to a state-run hospital.
BJP leaders, including former state BJP chief Ashok Parnami, Rajya Sabha MP Kirodi Lal Meena and former minister Arun Chaturvedi, staged a dharna near the Khonagorian police station, demanding the arrest of the accused, a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the kin of the deceased and job to a family member and suspension of the SHO.
Chaturvedi alleged police were trying to sweep the matter under the carpet.
The deceased's family members have said the person accused by police is actually not the real person who killed Vaishnav, he claimed.