Phagwara clash: Remand of Hindu, Dalit leaders extended
A court in Punjab extended till June 7 the judicial remand of four Hindu right-wing leaders and five Dalit activists, currently in jail in connection with the sectarian clash in Phagwara on April 13.
They were produced before the Phagwara judicial magistrate through video-conferencing, according to Jaskiranjit Singh, superintendent of police and head of a three-member special investigation team (SIT) probing the matter.
The Hindu leaders included Inderjit Karwal, state vice-president of Shiv Sena Bal Thackeray; Deepak Bhardwaj, Punjab unit president of All India Hindu Suraksha Samiti; Shivi Batta, president of Shiv Sena; and Raju Chahal, local Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha leader.
The
Dalit
activists
included
Harbhajan
Suman,
president
of
Punjab
Ambedkar
Sena
Moolnivasi,
Baljinder
Kumar,
Sanjeev
Kumar,
Davinder
Deepa
and
Pradeep
Ambedkari.
While
the
Hindu
leaders
were
arrested
on
April
15,
Dalit
activists
were
arrested
on
May
16.
Earlier, one-day police remand of Shivi Batta was secured on May 17 after section 302 (murder) of the IPC was added to the case after Yashwant Bobby (19) had succumbed to his injuries on April 29.
Batta was later again sent to judicial custody.
All nine activists of both groups were lodged in Modern Kapurthala jail.
Communal violence was triggered after Dalit groups had fixed a flex board with B R Ambedkar's picture on it at Gol Chowk here on April 13, attempting to rename it as Samvidhan Chowk.
Hindu activists opposed it, leading to sectarian clash that had left one dead and three injured.