Police arrest five people for Bhondsi attack, claim it was ‘non-communal brawl’

Sumedha Sharma
Tribune News Service
Gurugram, March 22

Four more people were arrested on Monday in connection with the Bhondsi violence case on Holi—taking the total number of arrests in the case to five arrests in the case.

Police said they arrested Dhirender alias Dhire, Amit, Dharmendra and Sunil were arrested around 2 am on Monday. 

One more suspect, Mahesh Kumar, was arrested on Friday.

Some women in the village meanwhile have accused police of conducting what they called “one-sided” investigation.

“We’re the victims here. Our only fault is that we’re not from the minority community and that’s what makes us culprits. This was a fight between two groups of boys. They injured our children first. They’ve (police) considered their minority status and have arrested out children, but they’ve not even registered our complaint,” a suspect’s mother said.

She said this was an attempt to “capture minority vote”.  

“Everybody, right from the sarpanch to local leaders, is doing this for their votes. If they don’t want us, we will not vote. No woman of our community will vote these elections. This is how we’ll protest this discrimination.”

The women claim they’ve approached police twice to have cross FIRs registered. They now threaten to gherao the local police station.

Investigators claim there was no communal angle to the incident. Highly-placed police sources have claimed that the victims could not name their assailants in the statements, indicating that they were “unknown” to them. Sources said both suspects and the victims have said that the brawl began on the cricket field.

"So far five have been arrested. As per statements and facts so far it was an altercation born out of argument on cricket field. The accused are claiming that their friends have too been injured but not produced any medical report or produced any injured person to second the claims. We are investigating matter and urge all to abstain from spreading rumors," Deputy Commissioner of Police Himanshu Garg said in a statement.

A mob of more than 20 people allegedly beat up a family of Muslims with hockey sticks on Holi while women pleaded them to stop. Videos of the incident showed some men attacking some people with hockey sticks and asking them to “go to Pakistan”.

The incident comes at a time when there is an increase in attack on minorities in the country. With agencies