Eight arrested after stone-pelting, clash and car arson in Shrirampur on Diwali night

A minor dispute between two groups on Diwali night in Shrirampur town turned violent. Stones were thrown near Datta Mandir on Gondhavani Road, people were beaten with sticks, and a car was vandalised and then set on fire. Panic spread in the area. Shrirampur City police have registered two separate cases against each other's groups and arrested eight people in all.

According to police, the incident took place around 12.15 am on November 8. The complainant in the first case and his friends were returning home from Gondhavani village after bursting Diwali firecrackers. A car coming at high speed from the direction of Dashmesh Chowk hit cement sacks kept at the roadside in front of the temple. While the complainant and his friends were trying to calm the young men in the car, Mohsin Mushtaq Shaikh and Arbaaz Shaikh arrived with five to six others. It is alleged that they beat the complainant and his friends with sticks and picked up stones from the road and threw them at them.

The complainant in the second case says his son and nephew had gone out for a drive in the car. Near the temple, in front of Education School, the car hit the cement sacks. The car's bumper broke and the vehicle stopped in the middle of the road. A crowd of 15 to 20 people present there, including Tejas More, Aniket Dafal and Raju Chavan, allegedly pelted the car with stones and damaged it. When the complainant and his relatives went to intervene, they were attacked too. The complainant's brother, Altamash Shaikh, was injured in the attack. The car was then set on fire in anger.

Treating the matter as serious, the city police acted immediately. In the first case, Shrikant Popat Gawade (Bhairavnathnagar), Aniket Ravindra Dafal (Northern Branch), Tejas Raju More (Adarshnagar), Sahil Dattatraya Patekar (Ward 7) and Raj Jawahar Chavan (Gondhavani Road, Ambedkar Colony) were arrested. In the second case, Arbaaz Anwar Shaikh, Mohsin Mushtaq Shaikh and Arbaaz Rafiq Deshmukh have been arrested. All three live on Kazibaba Road, Shrirampur. Police have begun searching for the remaining absconding accused.