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40 injured in Churu violence

JAIPUR: About 40 persons, including 22 policemen, were injured when police used force to disperse a big crowd that laid siege to a police station at Churu in northern Rajasthan on Sunday and hurled stones with the demand to release two youths arrested in connection with a feud between two families belonging to the same community.

The crowd blocked the roads adjacent to the police station and resorted to violence with the claim that the youths were innocent and had been taken into custody under “political pressure”. They were arrested recently after a dispute during the Holi celebrations in the district town.

Police resorted to lathicharge and burst teargas shells to disperse the crowd which they said was attacking the policemen despite being told that one of the youths, Madanlal Saini, had already been set free on Saturday night.

Those injured included the in-charge of City Police Lines, who was referred by doctors to Jaipur in a serious condition. Police sources claimed that the crowd had taken the law into its hands and was trying to influence investigations into the dispute.

However, some of the injured persons reportedly told their relatives that police officials first invited them inside the police station on the pretext of holding talks and then thrashed them without any provocation.

Additional police force from neighbouring Sikar district was pressed into service in the town on late Sunday evening.

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