Clashes break out over Maharana Pratap Jayanti procession in Gujarat’s Vadodara

Police lobbed teargas shells and resorted to baton charge to disperse members of two communities who clashed during a procession to mark the birth anniversary of Maharana Pratap in Vadodara’s Wadi area on Saturday night.

Police lobbed teargas shells and resorted to baton charge to disperse members of two communities who clashed during a procession to mark the birth anniversary of Rajput warrior Maharana Pratap in Vadodara’s Wadi area on Saturday night, a police official said.

Some people were injured in the violence, the official said, but did not specify the number. No arrest has been made so far, he said.

Members of the two communities hurled stones at each other, damaging a window of a religious place and some vehicles parked there, the official said.

Police lobbed seven teargas shells and baton charged the mob that engaged in stone pelting when the procession was passing through Dudhwala Mohalla in Wadi locality, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) KG Bhati said.

He said the procession was taken out by the Karni Sena — an organisation of the Rajput community.

According to an FIR lodged by a local resident at Wadi police station, members of the procession allegedly shouted slogans against a particular community.

They also allegedly attacked a shrine and damaged its glass window as well as some cars and two-wheelers parked there, an official at Wadi police station said, quoting the FIR.

The other community members retaliated, leading to a clash, he said.

The FIR stated that people in the procession, some armed with sharp weapons, allegedly shouted slogans to “incite members of the other community and spread hatred”, he said.

An investigation is on into the incident, the official said.

A case of rioting, unlawful assembly, mischief, voluntarily causing hurt and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code has been registered against nearly 200 people belonging to both communities, he added.