Aurangabad, Sep 2: A day after an agitation for reservation for the Maratha community turned violent in Maharashtra’s Jalna district leading to several people including dozens of police personnel getting injured, the situation was under control on Saturday, an official said. Police have registered a case against more than 360 persons for alleged involvement in the violence though no arrest has been made, he said.
Opposition leaders targeted the Shiv Sena-BJP government in the state over Friday’s incidents, condemning the use of baton charge by police and demanding that the government take steps to provide reservation to the politically dominant Maratha community.
Police used baton charge and fired teargas shells to disperse a violent mob at Antarwali Sarathi village on Dhule-Solapur road in Ambad tehsil of Jalna district, around 75 km from Aurangabad, on Friday.
The protesters, led by Manoj Jarange, had been staging a hunger strike demanding reservation since Tuesday. The trouble began when police tried to shift Jarange to hospital on doctors’ advice, officials said.
According to police, around 40 police personnel and some others were injured in the violence. The protesters pelted stones and torched at least 15 state transport buses and some private vehicles, they said.
“An offence was registered at Gondi police station in Jalna against 16 agitators who have been identified, and around 350 others for their involvement in violence,” a senior police official said.
The case was registered under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 307 (attempt to murder), 333 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and others. Jalna Superintendent of Police Tushar Doshi told PTI that nearly 40 police personnel were injured in the violence. Police used plastic bullets and tear shells to disperse the protesters, he said, adding that the situation was under control now.
Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had on Friday made an appeal for peace and announced that a committee will be set up for a high-level probe into the violence, while Deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis had claimed that the police were forced to use baton charge due to stone pelting. The reservation in jobs and education provided by the state government to the Maratha community was quashed by the Supreme Court in May 2021, citing the 50 per cent ceiling on total reservations among other grounds.
Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar on Saturday met Maratha quota agitators injured in police action a day earlier in Ambad tehsil in Jalna and sought removal of the 50 per cent ceiling on reservations. He also said the issues of “caste census” as well as the removal of quota cap were discussed in the meeting of opposition bloc INDIA that took place in Mumbai on Thursday and Friday. (PTI)
(PTI)