Raipur: More than 14 people, including the son of ex-CM Raman Singh, MP Santosh Pandey, and others booked for inciting the mob to create communal violence at Lohara Naka in Kawardha, the Police said on Friday. A day after the brutal incident, communal riots reoccurred leading to a majority of the damage in the Kawardha town, the administration was compelled to enforce curfew to control the violence.
Two days ago, ADG and in-charge Durg IG Vivekanand Sinha interacted with media over the incident and alleged that the riots were pre-planned and outsiders were specially called to create violence. There are BJP leaders involved in inciting the crowd, alleged Sinha.
On Tuesday, the police lodged an FIR against the unidentified miscreants and rioters including the BJP leaders under relevant sections of IPC including, 109, 147, 148, 149, 153, and others for rioting and carrying out violence.
Speaking to the FPJ over the phone on Friday, Kawardha SP Mohit Garg said that both the BJP leaders, Santosh Pandey and ex-MP Abhishek Singh, son of Dr. Raman Singh were identified leading the mob which went berserk and spread violence in the area leading to arson and major damages to properties.
The violence first spread on Sunday when two religious groups clashed over the hoisting of the flag. The police lodged an FIR on Tuesday based on the complaint, information, and evidence, the SP said.
In this case, 93 people have been arrested so far. At present, the situation is under control. Meanwhile, during the violence on Tuesday, around a dozen of people including three policemen sustained minor injuries.
However, MP Santosh Pandey, against whom Kawardha police lodged FIR, interacted with the media on Friday and
refuted all the allegations that the rioting mob was sponsored. He alleged police biased action made the situation out of control.
Kawardha is land of Karpatri Maharaj and Sankracharya, and here we will not allow Nijame Mustpha’s monopoly (Nijame Mustapha ki Nawabi nahi chalegi), Pandey said.
BJP leaders were first booked, which triggered tension on the local level and when the situation went out of hands again, the police intentionally started targeting the BJP leaders, leader of opposition Dharamlal Kaushik alleged.
However, in this case, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, while interacting with the media said nobody will be spared. Police are impartially working and very soon all the culprits will be presented before the public.
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