Four BJP workers held for beating up Congress workers

The Bharuch police on Monday arrested four BJP workers for allegedly beating up Congress workers during a campaign in Bhatkodra village of Ankleshwar taluka on July 18.

According to a complaint lodged at Ankleshwar GIDC police station on Sunday,the incident took place when about 10 of them were campaigning at Bhatkodra village,about 12 kilometers from Ankleshwar town. “The complainant,Ankleshwar Taluka sarpanch Vijaysinh Gohil Vijaysinh Gohil said around 15 people came in two Scorpio vehicles. They were armed with sticks and sharp weapons and led by BJP Ankleshwar Taluka secretary Paresh Prabhudas Patel alias Kabro. They beat up a Congress worker. Gohil was injured too,” said a police officer. The injured were taken to Patel Welfare Hospital in Ankleshwar.

On Monday evening,the police arrested Patel and three others. Meanwhile,Gohil submitted a separate memorandum to Bharuch SP Raghavendra Vats in which he named 10 others as accused. Vats said: “We will probe the charges. If found guilty,we will arrest all of them,” said Vats.

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Two checkposts have been set up near the village,where violence erupted in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls last year too.

This is the third such incident in the region ahead of next month’s civic polls in which BJP and Congress workers have clashed.