Tension prevailed in the Dhalna village in Bulandshahr district, following a clash between Thakurs and Dalits when a marriage procession of the latter was allegedly attacked by upper castes. The incident took place on Tuesday and the Thakurs had convened a panchayat on the issue on Thursday. The police, however, stopped the panchayat from being held.
Santosh Kumar Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Bulandshahr, said, "Heavy police force has been deployed in the village but there is calm now. Both groups have filed FIRs against one another. Some 120 people have been bound by surety bonds, and both groups have been instructed not to indulge in violence."
One of the complainants, Sanjeev Rana, said, "A baraat of Dalits was passing through a lane on Tuesday night in which a board bearing the name of Maharana Pratap was damaged. But we remained calm. On Wednesday, some 40 men, armed with lathis, attacked our locality, uprooted the damaged board and jumped on it, besides indulging in stone-pelting."
A video of the violence on Wednesday morning soon went viral on social media. Ten people from the Dalit community have been booked for rioting, voluntarily causing hurt and breach of peace, among other offences.
Refuting the allegations, the Dalits claimed that it was Thakurs who had attacked the baraat. "Our procession was peacefully passing through the lane where most of the houses belong to the upper caste. They started abusing us and half a dozen men attacked us with lathis," claimed Vinay Kumar. Based on his complaint, five Thakur men have also been booked under the SC/ST Act and for rioting and causing violence.
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