Tiff over playing song ends in communal clash; 2 cops hurt, 12 held in Telangana

Hyderabad: An alleged fracas over a song being played at a supermarket triggered a communal clash in Banswada town of Kamareddy district on Friday evening, leaving at least two police personnel injured. Police registered two cases and arrested 12 accused involved in rioting.After the violence, about 300 police personnel, under the direct supervision of the district SP, were deployed in the town to prevent any untoward incident. According to the SP, no civilians were injured in the rioting.
Trouble started around 5.30pm on Friday when a person working as a lab technician went to Reliance Smartbazar supermarket and allegedly asked a woman salesperson to stop playing devotional songs and switch to ‘item songs'. "He objected to the ‘bhajan' being played, asked me to reduce the volume and play item songs instead. While I was reducing the volume, he started taking my photos and videos with his mobile phone. On Feb 10, too, he had raised a similar objection to another co-worker and had abused her," the saleswoman alleged in her police complaint.Other employees and customers confronted the youth, allegedly assaulted him, and forcibly took him outside. Some of the locals from a community saw the assault and confronted the supermarket employees. Soon, members of two communities started gathering. By 7 pm, over 150 people from both communities had gathered about half a kilometre away from the supermarket. Police tried to pacify the crowd, but they raised religious slogans and began stone-pelting, injuring two cops.District armed reserve constable Jumma Narsugonda stated in his complaint that he was injured in the leg, while SI Anjaneyulu of Gandhari police station received an injury on his right collar bone. Police resorted to a lathicharge and dispersed the mob. On the constable's complaint, police on Saturday filed a case against 46 persons from both communities under multiple BNS sections for rioting, attempt to murder, promoting enmity between different groups, unlawful assembly, and acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony, among other provisions.An FIR was earlier filed against the lab technician on Friday on the saleswoman's complaint under BNS sections 77 (voyeurism), 196(1)(a) (promoting enmity between different groups and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), and 79 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman)."We have arrested 12 accused from both the communities in the rioting case. The accused will be produced before a magistrate for remand," Kamareddy SP M Rajesh Chandra said. The situation was now peaceful, he said, adding, "Our teams are keeping a close watch on social media to ensure no communally provocative posts are in circulation."In the vandalism, three fruit shops and a fast food centre were also damaged, but the victims had not filed any police complaint so far.