Police's, locals' proper response thwarts violence on Eid's eve

Bhopal: With the timely intervention of police and the felicitous response of locals, the town of Burhanpur in Madhya Pradesh averted a potential communal riot outbreak on the eve of Eid-Ul-Fitr, news portal The Wire reported.

Police's probe into the matter found that a Hindu man affiliated with BJP had done the dirty deed. The incident happened three weeks after the communal clashes in Khargone during Ram Navami rallies and 160 kilometres afar.

The town is also known for its communal violence that happened in 2008, which took the lives of eight people, injured more than 25 people, and more than 60 shops were ransacked or set on fire.

On the evening of May 2, idols of Hanuman and Ram in a temple at Maliwada got vandalised, and the town residents took the appropriate move of approaching the police. They informed Superintendent of Police (SP) Rahul Kumar Lodha around 8:00 in the evening, after they noticed the vandalisation noticed.

SP Lodha told the wire that after receiving the information, police reached the spot instantly and formed four probe teams.

After rumours started spreading through the town, local BJP leader Amit Varude reached Maliwada and alleged that Muslims were behind the vandalism. Lodha was present at the spot, and he asked Varude not to make any baseless allegations and assured him that an investigation was going on. Lodha ordered to register an FIR under Section 295 (injuring or defiling a place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) of the Indian Penal Code, and the same was done at Kotwali police station.

A probe through CCTV footage in the area revealed that the miscreant was Satish Chouhan (28), nephew of local BJP leader Prahlad Chouhan. Police arrested him at midnight, and he was sent to jail the next day, Lodha said.

Police later released a press note, including Satish's photo, on social media and informed that any attempt to incite communal conflict on the eve of Eid was averted and the offender apprehended.

Lodha told The Wire that Satish is a nephew to local BJP leader Prahlad Chouhan and "his mental health is a concern" and he was on treatment. The investigation was still on, he said.

Congress leaders met Lodha the next, thanked him for his effort in averting a conflict and demanded action against those trying to trigger violence.

Congress member Ajay Raghuwanshi told The Wire that local BJP leader Amit Varude continuously attempts to incite violence. He alleged that three days before Eid, Amit tried to paint a trivial fight among teenagers into a communal issue, but police thwarted the attempt.

SP Lodha said that Varude was made to fill a bond of Rs 2 lakh under Section 108 Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and assure police that he would not repeat the offence.

Congress leader Arun Yadav, a former MP from Khandwa, alleged that BJP was deliberately creating communal violence for political benefits, highlighting Satish and his association with the saffron party. BJP created conflict in Khargone and Sendhwa, where they lost in the 2018 elections, and Maliwada was their third attempt. He added that when the government is failing on every front, inflation is skyrocketing, and elections are impending, BJP is en route to polarising voters on communal lines.