Jamshedpur : BJP activists staged demonstrated at the senior SP office to protest the arrest of Chhotu Pandit, who was one of the main accused in the Mango communal violence in July.
A BJP member, Pandit was arrested in connection with an assault case registered with the Mango police station on Friday. The BJP activists in large numbers gathered to protest his arrest because the police have booked him under Arms Act.
Party workers led by Mukul Mishra, the BJP’s district committee general secretary, protested Pandit’s arrest as he is among the 22 party members whose names had figured in the list of accused in the Mango communal violence in July.
A delegation of the protestors led by Mishra also met the senior SP, Anoop T Mathew and registered their protest.
About two hours before the protest, the police had sealed the Jubilee Park gates adjoining the district administrative building keeping in view to minimise the turn out during the demonstration.�
Apart from diverting the vehicular traffic from the Jubilee Park’s Bistupur end gate, the police had deployed adequate number of district armed police.
Notably, the trouble took place between the two communities in Mango on July 20 night when three bike-borne youths shot in the air at Mango’s Gandhi Maidan where a fair, part of Id celebration, was on, allegedly tried to molest two girls near the Payal Cinema and then flashed firearms before residents of nearby Daiguttu locality.
All educational institutions had also remained closed on July 22, 23 and 24 on the direction of the District Commissioner following communal tension after two communities clashed and subsequent imposition of prohibition orders in Jamshedpur.
However, the there was no incident of eve-teasing but a group rivalry which resulted in communal clashes in Mango.
Two mixed groups with men of both communities who are drug addicts fighting against each other after the Eid celebrations near Gandhi Maidan made the incident take such communal step, said SSP Anoop T Mathew.
The two gangs headed by Asif Akhtar alias Sibu and Md Waris clashed on July 19 at Bawangoda Chowk under Azadnagar police station and Sibu and his aide Jasim were injured.
