AHMEDABAD: At least three separate incidents of communal violence marred Navratri festivities in Gujarat’s Kheda and Vadodara districts, resulting in injuries to at least half-a-dozen people, police said on Tuesday. “A group entered the Navratri Garba venue and started the trouble. They also threw stones,” said Kheda Superintendent of Police Rajesh Gadhiya, PTI reported.
“Six people were injured. We have deployed police force in the village and efforts are on to arrest the accused,” he said, adding a home guard deployed at the spot was among those injured. Reports said the police baton-charged the suspected attackers arrested in the case by holding them against an electric pole in the village square in full public view.
Video clips purportedly showed three persons arrested for allegedly throwing stones at participants at the Garba celebration on Monday night in Kheda’s Undhela village being brought out of a police van near the event’s venue. They were then taken towards an electric pole and held against it by a policeman who pulled their hands. Another policeman is seen hitting them below the waist with a baton.
The images showed the alleged attackers apologised to villagers, who were present in a large number at the site. “The FIR says a mob of 150 people, including women, attacked the group performing Garba. As per the FIR, 43 of the accused have been identified by their name,” the official said.
The arrested were booked under various sections of the IPC related to attempt to murder, rioting, unlawful assembly and voluntarily causing hurt, among others. “The Sarpanch had organised the Garba event at the village temple on ashtami (eighth day of Navratri), but a mob tried to stop the function,” said Deputy SP VR Bajpai.
In the second incident, two bouncers of a particular community, were seriously injured and admitted to a hospital in Surat. In the third incident, a communal clash erupted at a vegetable market in Savli town of Vadodara on Monday.
An FIR has been registered, naming the accused from both communities. The police produced all the accused in court where the court granted them bail. A police officer said many vehicles were damaged in the stone-throwing. “The police have intensified patrolling,” said a police officer.