Gujarat: Clash between two communities in Anand village, FIR against 45

Both sides, however, refused to lodge police complaints in the wake of the wedding of a girl from one of the communities in the village the same night, police said, adding that two constables were deployed at the village to prevent any untoward incident.

However, later in the night, members of both the communities again had an altercation during which they attacked each other with swords, knives and stones, police said.

When police tried to intervene, the mob damaged a police vehicle and injured a constable.

A vehicle belonging to one of the communities was also damaged by the other community, and three people, including two women, received severe injuries on their head. Police said the injured were rushed to a nearby hospital.

An FIR was filed on Monday against a mob of 45 people and 15 people were identified in the complaint.

All the accused were booked under IPC sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 307 (attempt to murder), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), among others.

“Most of the accused have fled the village and we are trying to track them down. We have brought a few people for interrogation but are yet to arrest anyone. We have also increased the police deployment in the area and it will continue for another day or two,” said investigating officer N M Ahir.

Later on Monday afternoon, another FIR was registered in connection with the clash that took place on Sunday afternoon in which four people were named in the FIR and booked under IPC sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (2) and 114 (abettor present when offence is committed).

Pipli, a village in Borsad taluka of Anand, has a mixed population of both the communities staying together and has witnessed similar incidents earlier as well.

In September this year, on the final day of Ganesh idol immersion, a clash had broken out between the two communities when the Ganesh idol immersion procession crossed a mosque in the village, and the minority community objected to the procession bursting crackers in front of the mosque. Members from the two communities began pelting stones at each other and the police were immediately rushed to the spot to bring the situation under control.

An FIR was lodged by the police against 25 people and a mob of 100 for rioting and unlawful assembly. Over 50 policemen were deployed for three consecutive days in the village.