November 30, 2006
A Dalit youth was beaten to death on Wednesday
as violence and arson marred the protests that
erupted in parts of Maharashtra and Kanpur against
the alleged vandalisation of a statue of B R
Ambedkar in Kanpur.
Rangnath Shankar Dhale, a 23-year-old resident
of hutments at Muktidham in Nasik, was beaten
to death by a mob which found him allegedly
pelting stones at vehicles on Nasik Road during
protests against the vandalisation of the Ambedkar
statue in Kanpur.
Activists of Dalit groups and various factions
of Republican Party of India took to the streets
in Pune, Nasik and Mumbai protesting the statue
vandalisation during which one bus was set on
fire and over 25 vehicles, including five Maharashtra
State Road Transport Corporation buses, were
damaged in stone-pelting, police said.
The protestors burnt tyres at several places,
obstructing vehicular traffic. In the textile
town of Malegaon, unidentified persons pelted
stones at three temples, police said.
Additional police forces were deployed in Nasik
where the situation was described by police
as tense.
Shopkeepers downed their shutters on the busy
Subhash Road, Jail Road, Dutta Mandir Road of
Nasik and around the railway station due to
stone pelting.
At least 10 vehicles were damaged in stone pelting
by RPI activists in north-east Mumbai.
In Kanpur, locals damaged several vehicles and
held up traffic after passers-by noticed the
damaged statue at Ambedkar Nagar in the morning.
In Pune, over 50 private and public vehicles
were damaged in stone-pelting in at least half
a dozen localities, police said.
At least four persons, including two policemen,
were injured in the stone pelting.
While a Pune Municipal Corporation bus driver
and an autorickshaw driver were hurt in Swargate
locality, two policemen were injured at Pimpri
Chinchwad, an industrial township about 25 km
from Pune.
A mob also tried to set ablaze a fire brigade
tender in Pimpri Chinchwad. So far, three cases
of rioting have been registered.
Additional police forces has been deployed to
contain any spread of violence and bring the
situation under control in Pune, police added.
Meanwhile, in the western Maharasthra district
of Ahmednagar, state-owned buses and private
vehicles were the target of the protestors,
police sources said.
