Vadodara: Communal clash over bursting firecrackers on Diwali, 96 people booked
Stones were pelted and a petrol bomb was hurled at a senior police official in Vadodara’s Panigate area early on Tuesday morning.
The Vadodara City police on Tuesday booked 96 people on charges of rioting and attempt to murder after a communal clash broke out in the city’s Panigate area following a disagreement over bursting firecrackers on Diwali at around 1 am. Stones were pelted and a petrol bomb was hurled at a senior police official, the police said.
The case has been handed over to the Vadodara Detection of Crime Branch (DCB).
The FIR lodged at Panigate police station by Assistant Sub Inspector Gopal Mangaldas states that the clash began over an altercation regarding airborne firecrackers being fired from areas of both communities. At around 1 am on Tuesday, the clash turned violent as mobs began pelting stones from Kahar Mohalla and Nalbandwada Mohalla, two areas dominated by people from two separate communities, the FIR says. “The control room had earlier received a complaint that firecrackers were being burst near Muslim Medical Centre, accompanied by DJ music, which should be stopped,” Mangaldas has said in the FIR, adding that he reached the spot as he was in charge of the PCR van.
The FIR further says that a two-wheeler parked near the medical centre was set on fire while a petrol bomb was hurled from one of the homes in the Nalbandwada area with an “intention to kill police personnel”.
A police statement released on Tuesday evening said that 20 people who had indulged in stone pelting were identified and detained from the spot while 26 others were booked after being identified from CCTV footage.
