Rajasthan bypoll violence: Independent candidate who slapped SDM arrested, 60 detained

Jaipur: Even as Rajasthan police rounded up around 60 miscreants on charges of indulging in riots post the bypolls in Deoli-Uniara constituency, there was a demand for a judicial probe by Independent candidate Naresh Meena on Thursday just hours before he was arrested in the afternoon.

The ruckus on Wednesday started after Naresh Meena slapped the SDM during voting in Samravata village of the Assembly.

Soon after Naresh Meena slapped the SDM there was heavy stone pelting between the police and the villagers.

The violence continued throughout the night after that.

As many as 50 people were injured in the stone pelting and arson and 60 rioters were arrested by the police.

To deal with the miscreants, the police also fired tear gas shells at the villagers.

In retaliation, the angry people also damaged the car of SP Vikas Sangwan.

Meanwhile, the police took Naresh Meena into custody at around 9 P.M.

As soon as Meena’s supporters came to know about this, they became even more angry and hundreds of villagers surrounded the police personnel and freed Meena and took him away.

After this, the police raided Samravata village and surrounding areas throughout Wednesday night.

So far 60 accused have been arrested and more than 50 villagers and policemen have been injured in this incident.

The villagers allege that the policemen set fire to many vehicles in the village and took away many youths.

Due to the police raid throughout the night, more than 100 people fled from the village.

On Thursday morning, too, the police were searching for Naresh Meena, who went missing after being rescued by his supporters.

Late on Wednesday night, Naresh Meena shared a post on X and wrote, “I am fine.”

However, on Thursday, Naresh Meena’s first statement came out in which he told the media, “I have come here to surrender and there should be a judicial enquiry into the whole case, the police behaved brutally so we also retaliated. Had the Collector visited the spot yesterday, nothing would have happened.”

Meena said that he did not run away from police custody.

Earlier on Thursday morning, Additional SP, Tonk, Brijendra Singh Bhati said, “We are analysing the loss. We have made a few arrests. We are looking for him (Naresh Meena)… We will get into the details later.”

–IANS

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