The police have booked 205 people on charges of involvement in the group clash at Ranakunde village that left at least four persons injured. The cases were booked on Thursday. The incident occurred on Wednesday. They include five persons originally booked in the case.
The Belagavi Rural police had registered a case under IPC provisions relating to injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class, attempt to murder, rioting, and other sections. Similar provisions have been applied against the 200 others, the police said.
On Friday, some villagers urged the police to withdraw the cases registered against them, but their effort went in vain. After consultation with senior officers, the district administration allowed villagers to reconstruct the demolished temple.
Wednesday’s group clash was the result of an altercation between members of a Belagavi-based family that tried to stop the construction of a place of worship in the village, claiming it was being built on their family property. The villagers, however, argued that the land belonged to the Huda temple trust and that the Inamdar family from Belagavi had not only obstructed the construction, but also hurt their religious sentiments.
Villagers maintained that prayers had been offered at the place for several years. A crowd began a street fight that led to some persons getting injured.
They were treated at the district hospital. They were all declared to be out of danger.
Police officers rushed to the spot and dispersed the crowd. Dhananjaya Jadhav, BJP leader, alleged that the Inamdars had no claim over the land as they had sold it long ago.
However, inspection of documents by the tahsildar revealed that the land belonged to the gram panchayat.
The Assistant Commissioner of police and others held a peace committee meeting in the village. He asked the general public not to take the law into their own hands till the dispute over ownership of the land was resolved. He promised to station a city armed reserve van in the village till peace returned.
