In Nagaur district of Rajasthan, one person was killed while many others were injured after a rally organised by Rajput outfits demanding a CBI probe into gangster Anandpal Singh’s death turned violent on Wednesday evening. Anandpal was killed in a police encounter in Churu district on June 24. Anandpal, who belonged to the Ravana Rajput community, was on the run since September 2015 after escaping from police custody. 32 people and 20 policemen were also injured in the clash.
Image source: NDTV
Anandpal had over three dozen criminal cases against him including murders. He was allegedly the most wanted criminal in the state. The Police on Thursday said that Haryana’s Lalchand Sharma died in the clashes, and Mahendra Singh, a resident of Jodhpur, was critically injured. Singh has been admitted to the intensive care unit of a hospital, they added.
The additional director general of police (law and order) NRK Reddy was quoted saying from Hindustan Times that the force is “trying to find out more details about Sharma but it appears that Singh had come to the rally,”
Over 50,000 protesters had gathered at Saanvrad, the village of the gangster, pelted stones at official vehicles, set a police vehicle on fire and snatched weapons, Reddy said. “Three of our weapons are missing as we are suspecting that the protestors managed to take hold of an AK 47 and two pistols. Two of the weapons were snatched from the gunman of Nagaur SP Paris Deshmukh,” he added.
“The protesters were trying to lock the RPF constables inside the outpost and set fire to it. Nagaur SP reached there with force and tried to rescue them when they roughed him up and also set fire to his vehicle,” said the ADG.
After the encounter of Anandpal, various Rajput groups have been protesting in different parts of Rajasthan and have resorted to vandalism and blocking roads. Meanwhile, a curfew has been imposed in Saanvrad and the internet connection in Nagaur district has been cut off.
