Two detained after stone pelting at Jarange’s village in Maharashtra's Beed district

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Police have detained two persons and booked 15-20 others after some people resorted to sloganeering and stone pelting in pro-Maratha quota activist Manoj Jarange’s village in Maharashtra’s Beed district, an official said on Friday.

The incident took place on Thursday night at Matori village, prompting the authorities to deploy a platoon of the State Reserve Police Force there to maintain peace, he said.

It all started when some people from nearby villages were passing through Matori around 8 pm to take part in a rally of OBC quota agitators Laxman Hake and Navnath Waghmare.

During that time, some people raised slogans which then led to stone pelting near the bus stand, the official said. It was immediately not clear who started sloganeering and who hurled stones.

Amid rising tension at the spot, police intervened and detained two persons, he said. A case has been registered against 15-20 people at Chaklamba police station in Beed district.

The situation is fully under control at Matori village, he added.

Jarange, who has brought the Maratha quota issue to the centre stage in the state, has been demanding the implementation of the draft notification that recognises Kunbis as ‘sage soyare’ (blood relatives) of Maratha community members.

Kunbi, an agrarian group, falls under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category, and Jarange has been demanding that Kunbi certificates be issued to all Marathas, thus making them eligible for quota benefits.

However, OBC activists Hake and Waghmare have opposed Jarange’s demand for the issuance of Kunbi certificates to the Maratha community, asserting that the state government must not take any decision that affects OBCs.

Jarange last week had accused the state government of trying to create tension between the Maratha and OBC communities.