Meerut: Police had to resort to lathicharge when hundreds of members of a particular community turned violent, assaulting people and attacking media crews late on Wednesday night in Thanabhawan town of Shamli.

The violence began with a minor accident in which a truck carrying the wedding items of one Faeem Ahmad hit two youths, Vipul Kumar and Arjun Singh, while reversing. Though no one was injured, there was a fight between the two groups, of which one filed a police complaint in Thanabhawan police station.

Police took possession of the truck but could not start it and left it parked. After sometime, the truck mysteriously caught fire and most of the consignment was destroyed. The aggrieved party alleged that the police connived with some youths of THE other community and set the truck on fire.

Naushad Ali, owner of the truck, told TOI, “We were coming from Budhana after my nephew’s wedding. After entering the town, the truck carrying the wedding items accidentally hit a bike and the two youth started fighting with us. Later they called police and in front of cops set the truck on fire destroying the entire consignment.”

Soon after the fire, hundreds of people gathered at the spot and resorted to damaging shops and homes after which a police force arrived and tried to pacify them. The policemen then resorted to lathicharge.

During the violence, some anti-social elements allegedly attacked innocent bystanders as well. Sunny Kumar, a resident of Nanota, filed a police complaint, stating that during the violence he was returning home when some men attacked the vehicle and his family and snatched valuables from them.

City superintendent of police Ajay Pal Sharma said, “There are allegations that while the police was taking the truck to the station, the youths who had filed the FIR set the truck on fire. Prima facie we did not find any inflammable material from the site that could have been used for arson but we have deployed a forensic team to look into the matter and things will be clear once we get a report on Friday.”

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