Thirty-eight people have been arrested in connection with a violent protest that broke out in the Peeladar village of Udaipur, Rajasthan Parliamentary Affairs Minister Shanti Dhariwal informed the House on Tuesday.
Dissatisfied with the investigation into a murder case, Patel community members pelted stones, torched vehicles and blocked a road in Udaipur on Monday, injuring several police personnel, including a woman constable.
Dhariwal was responding to allegations made by Leader of Opposition Gulab Chand Kataria about laxity on the part of police in dealing with the murder case.
During the Zero Hour, Kataria claimed that no senior policeman or district administration official went to the village to diffuse the tension that was building among the family members and relatives of Ramesh Patel, who was abducted and found murdered last week.
He said the incident occurred due to intelligence failure.
Dhariwal, however, denied the allegations and said, "Thirty-eight people have been arrested in connection with the incident. Police have already arrested two murder accused who have confessed to having committed the crime. But the family members of the deceased wanted some others to be named as accused and their arrest, but this is a matter of investigation and if anyone else is involved in the case will be arrested."
Speaker C P Joshi told the minister that the matter Kataria raised was more about the administrative failure.
On Monday, the Patel community members were agitating following the killing of Ramesh Patel, and were dissatisfied with police action in the case.
An FIR was registered on July 12 after Patel's body was recovered from a forest area.
IG Udaipur Binita Thakur said 12 people, including 10 policemen, were injured during the protest.
"Police have detained 152 people as a preventive measure. Additional policemen have been deployed in the area to maintain law and order," she said.
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