M A I N   N E W S

Mob torches houses of Dalits
Dharmendra Joshi
Tribune News Service

Gohana (Sonepat) August 31
In a violent backlash to murder of Gharwal village youth Baljeet Siwach here on Saturday night, a mob belonging to upper castes most of them Jats, burnt several houses of the Dalits situated in Balmiki Colony near Baroda Chowk here today.

At least, 15 houses were gutted in the fire, whereas 28 others were reportedly partially burnt.

However, no one was injured in the incident as most members of Dalit families residing in the colony, had already deserted their houses to take shelter to some safer places fearing the violent backlash.

Those who had left behind also migrated to some other places after seeing the violent mob approaching towards their colony. It took several hours for fire tenders to extinguish the fire due to narrow lanes. While fire was put out in most houses by the evening, however flames were seen emerging from some houses even later in the day.

Earlier, a violent mob, armed with lathis, attacked the colony and burnt the locked houses after pouring petrol on them. Bursting of LPG cylinders in the houses added fuel to the fire engulfed most of the houses.

Several police personnel, present, on the occasion, fired 12 rounds in the air to control the mob. Senior police and administrative officials reached the spot.

Later talking to mediapersons, the IG Rohtak range, Mr VN Rai, DC Suresh Jindal and SP Anil Rao said the police used utmost restraint to control the mob to avoid further deterioration of the situation.

Meanwhile, Section 144 of the CrPC was imposed in Gohana and extra security personnel were deployed in the affected areas. Officials of the administration claimed that the situation was tense but under control.

The exact loss of property could not be known. Some officials had been deputed to assess the loss of property. Earlier, a panchayat of Butana Bahra, 12 villages, including Butana and surrounding 11, had been held at Gharwal village yesterday.

At the meeting, members alleged that some persons, residing in Balmiki Colony, had created terror in the town. They levelled allegations against them that they had been involved in serious crimes including several murders.

MP’s sons booked
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 31
Two sons and a brother of the BJP Lok Sabha member from Sonepat, Mr Krishan Singh Sangwan, are among 23 persons booked by the police in connection with the burning of houses of Dalits by a violent mob near Gharwal village in Sonepat district today.

Mr Sundarpal Singh, Media Adviser to the Haryana Chief Minister, and Mr Sanjay Kothari, Principal Secretary in the Department of Information and Public Relations, while addressing a press conference here late in the evening, said cases of arson, violence had been registered against the accused in the burning case. However, none of the accused has been arrested so far, they said. Mr Sundarpal Singh said two sons of Mr Sangwan against whom cases had been registered were Pradip and Ranbir. Mr Sangwan’s brother’s name was not readily available with him.

The two government functionaries said the incident was the aftermath of the murder of one Baljeet in a scuffle on August 27.