As many as 70 people were arrested and 82 booked from Kumpat village in Banaskantha’s Deesa after several persons including eight police personnel were injured when a mob pelted stones on a wedding procession of a man belonging to the Other Backward Caste (OBC) community on Friday.
The mob allegedly objected to the groom riding a mare during the procession.
According to police, the incident occurred around 4:30 pm when the wedding procession of Vishnusinh Chauhan, started from a temple in the village, under heavy police security.
“Chauhan, a Koli Thakor, had demanded police security claiming that he faced threats from people of the Darbar (Kshatriya) community from his village over him riding a mare during the procession. Police personnel from three police stations and additional force from DySP office Deesa were brought in to control the situation. We also had discussions with community leaders of the village,” said MJ Chaudhary, PI, Deesa Rural Police Station.
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PremiumAccording to police, as the procession began under police watch, a mob of 150-200 people started pelting stones on police vehicles and police personnel.
“Among the mob, an accused named Kalusinh Solanki approached me with a bamboo stick and said that we are breaking a tradition of their village by allowing the groom to ride a mare. He then assaulted me with the stick and several villagers started throwing stones at us. We fired three rounds of tear gas shells to disperse the mob. A total of eight police personnel were injured and five police vans were vandalised by the mob. An FIR has been lodged and a total of seventy persons have been arrested till now including Kalusinh Solanki,” said Chaudhary.
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A total of eight police personnel including Inspector Chaudhary, PSI Dantiwada SJ Desai, Circle Inspector, Deesa KP Gadhvi, Assistant Head Constables Sanjaydan, Vikramdan and Bharatbhai, assistant police constable Bhavesh Kumar and police constable Dinesh Kumar Balaji were injured in the incident.
Taking cognizance, police have booked 82 accused of Kumpat village under IPC 307 for an attempt to murder, 120b for criminal conspiracy, 332 and 333 for assaulting public servant on duty, sections of rioting and sections of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.