Protestors attack buses, shops; cops manage to establish control, promise normal business on Monday
Angry mobs went on a rampage in parts of Pune on Sunday, attacking shops and buses, over offensive pictures of Chhatrapati Shivaji circulated on social media.
Protestors pelted stones damaging about 190 public buses and they forced shopkeepers to down shutters.
Assistant police inspector Nilesh Jagdale was hurt in the stone pelting on NDA Pashan Road in Hinjewadi. Some passersby were also hurt in the violence.
The police managed to bring about some control on the situation by evening, and traffic resumed and markets reopened. They said more than a hundreds people were arrested in connection with the violence.
Joint commissioner of police Sanjeey Kumar said, "The heavy bandobast deployed on Sunday will continue on Monday as well and people need not fear any untoward incident. They will be able to go to work."
Three companies of the State Reserve Police Force, three quick response teams were deployed to help the city police establish control. Special attention has been given to areas like Pimpri Chinchwad, Hadapsar, Yerawada and Vishwantwadi that are known to be sensitive areas.
The Kothrud police have registered a case in connection with the derogatory pictures. They have managed to block the links to the pages on the Web and are investigating the matter.
"We have managed to delete the posts and have written to the computer incidents response team to provide information related to the objectionable images," said Rajesh Bansode, deputy commissioner of police in the cyber-crimes cell.
He said that according to information available the servers of the websites that published the pictures were based out of the country and therefore the probe would take some time.
The trouble began on Saturday evening in Chinchwad and spread to other parts of the city. The areas most affected by the violence were Kothrud, Sinhagad Road, Hadapsar and Tilak Road.
It being a Sunday and the movement of public buses severely disrupted, people chose not to move about. Even some petrol pumps and ATMs were shut down in some areas after the violence.
Sangeeta Barve, who works with a software firm in Mumbai was stranded at the Pune station bus stand. "I had to report to office at 4pm, but I won't be able to report on time," said the 25-year-old. Buses resumed after 4:15pm.
Protestors blocked traffic on the Pune-Mumbai expressway for over an hour after noon, near Kiwale bridge. Kiwale is where the old highway meets the expressway.
"Traffic was not moving. But I was not aware what was happening. It was only after we started moving that I saw police clearing the protestors near the toll plaza," said Umang Oswal, co-founder of Pune Instagrammers who was driving from Khopoli to Pune.
Some trains were also running more than half an hour late. Many travellers could not get to the railway stations.
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