40 arrested for Badlapur riot

BADLAPUR. Thane : For the fourth time in eight months, a township of Thane district flared to a communal spark as widespread incidents of arson and stabbing left 10 people in Badlapur injured, two of them severely.
The violence followed an eve-teasing incident, the police said. A mob set afire a saw mill, a rice mill, several shops, two vehicles and some houses.The police fired four rounds in the air, but the situation was brought under control only by midnight. Additional police and fire brigade personnel have now been stationed in the township. This year already has seen communal disturbances in Murbad, Kalyan and Bhiwandi. Forty people have been arrested in connection with the Badlapur violence, said minister of state for home, Kripashankar Singh.
Among those arrested are two Bharatiya Janata Party corporators—Sharad Mhatre and Sanjay Bhoir—and a former corporator, Masood Kohari, officials said. However, Mr Singh refused to confirm this. Sources close to Mr Singh said his department was unhappy about the performance of police commissioner S.M. Shangari.
Several communal incidents have occured under his watch, as also the torching of the Singhania hospital by Shiv Sainiks last year. The police claimed an incident of eve-teasing had led to the violence but members of both communities insisted that the communal situation in Badlapur had been simmering even before Navratri. Sunday’s skirmish between two groupswas enough to blow the lid off, they said. The Bajrang Dal has been active in the area for the past eight months. Violence over an alleged incident of eveteasing started around 8.30 p.m. on Sunday the old Badlapur town, the police said.
Singh and Mr Shangari refused to name people involved, arguing that this could aggravate the situation. Shiv Sena MP from Thane, Prakash Paranjpe, and Sena district chief, Raghunath More, who visited Badlapur on Monday, told Singh that a mob had used a toy gun to shoot ball-bearings at the police. Some local residents repeated these allegations to TNN. However, both Mr Shangari and Mr Singh refused to confirm this. The Sena leaders wanted the police to extensive combing operations for weapons. “We don’t mind, even if you search our temples, but the police must comb the entire township,’’ Mr More told a group of Sainiks. The old Badlapur town is eight kilometres from the railway station and has a population of about about 10,000 people. It does not a single police chowkey.
There is one shortstaffed police station some distance from railway station. Mr Singh promised to provide a chowkey the town and also increase the strength of police station. He said that certain elements were fanning communal fires in the state discredit the government. He also denied there had been an intelligence failure. Those injured are Milind Mule, Nandkumar Bhopi, Prashant Tawde, Hemant Bhopi, Nilesh Ganore, Subodh Sule, Tushar Jagtap, Shivaji Sonawale, Nathuram Padwal and Aslam Mohammed. Mr Padwal Mr Mohammed were on Monday shifted J.J. and Lokmanya Tilak hospitals in Mumbai and their condition was described critical.