Police arrest twenty nine persons in Maniktala clash

Repeated clashes between two groups of people from adjacent localities since Monday night following a trouble over a football match in Manicktala area left several injured as pelting of stones and glass bottles at each other continued for hours on Tuesday morning as well.

Police arrested 29 people including 6 women from both the groups on charges of creating trouble in the area.

Local MLA Sadhan Pande visited the spot on Tuesday morning and said that it was an outcome of a trouble between two localities. He said; “All are our people here. Thus there is no question of any further trouble. The situation has been brought under control and I will organise a big festival in Krishnapalli on the day of Janmasthami,” he said.

Police said that the clash had broken out between residents of two adjacent localities – Krishnapalli and Natunpalli.

Babai Das, a resident of Krishnapalli, said that the trouble broke out when he went to Natunpalli to buy food from a hotel on Monday night. Some youth from Natunpalli had passed comments on Das as the result of a football match didn’t go in his favour. Das, however, didn’t reply and was hurrying to leave the area. But the youth approached him and pushed him in a bid to create trouble purposefully. Subsequently they started beating up Das when he fell on the road.

They allowed him to go with injuries. Finding him in such a condition, his friends for Krishnapalli rushed to Natunpalli and a clash broke out between the groups. They started pelting stones and empty bottles at each other. But the situation came under control with intervention of the police. 

The situation turned worse on Tuesday morning as the brick battle had started once again. Youth were found throwing bottles and pebbles from terrace of some buildings. The railway tracks had become the boundary for both the groups. Each group were throwing stones from the either side of the tracks.

It led to panic among passengers in railways as some youths were found throwing stones at the trains. The passengers had to pull down the windows in the train.

A huge contingent of police led by Debasmita Das, Deputy Commissioner, Eastern Sub-urban Division, reached the spot. Some policemen were found chasing the people on railway tracks. The youth jumped on to the lanes adjacent to the railway tracks and ran inside the localities. Police were found chasing them inside the localities as well. RAF was also pressed to the spot.

Several people including two policemen were injured in the incident. The mob damaged two cars of the police as initially lesser number of students had gone to tackle the situation.