Police on Monday booked around 150 people in Rajkot for allegedly assaulting a police personnel and damaging public property during a protest demonstration over the murder of 30-year-old Kishan Boliya in Ahmedabad's Dhandhuka. An FIR was filed in connection with the incident based on a complaint filed by DK Patel, a police sub-inspector (PSI) attached to Pradyuman Nagar police station, who claimed to have been injured in the protest. According to police, a mob of around 150 people occupied road near Dharam Cinema Monday after submitting memorandum to the additional collector in Rajkot protesting over the murder of Boliya, who was allegedly shot dead in Dhandhuka of Ahmedabad recently for an objectionable social media post. When police asked them to clear the road, the mob started marching first towards Bahumali Bhavan Chowk and then towards the office of Rajkot city police commissioner in Jilla Panchayat Chowk. While marching towards the police commissioner's office from Bahumali Bhavan Chowk, the mob tried to vandalise a shop. “While passing by the police commissioner office gate, they shouted that they were going to Bhistivad and marched towards Fulchhab Chowk,” the FIR quotes the PSI as having stated, adding "After the mob of 100 t0 150 people assembled in Fulchhab Chowk, police asked it to disperse. This triggered pushing and pulling among the mob and someone from the mob swiped at me, breaking two-three buttons of my shirt and I suffered minor injury on my nose, leading to bleeding." The FIR records that the mob then started pelting stones on a police control-room (PCR) van and smashed its windscreen before police baton-charged the unlawful assembly and dispersed it. "We are analysing footage and photos recorded by our videographers and photographers as well as CCTV footage and videos recorded by various media houses for identifying the accused. Prima facie, people from various parts of the city had assembled at the collector office and they formed a mob. No one has been detained or arrested so far," Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Pramod Diyora said. The mob has been booked under IPC Sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from discharging his duty), 427 (mischief causing damage to amounting to Rs50) and 269 (unlawfully or negligently doing an act which is likely to spread infection or a disease) and under the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act. The ACP further said that prima facie, police were not treating leaders of various communities and trade bodies who submitted memorandums at collector office as suspects. “We questioned the organisers yesterday and they said that they felt cheated by their own community members by taking out a march and indulging in violence. Prima facie, they were not involved in the violence. But if their involvement comes to fore during the course of investigation, we shall take action against them,” said Diyora.
