The Cyberabad police arrested 16 persons for alleged involvement in the group clash at Janwada on Wednesday. The 16 accused include the sarpanch, 10 villagers and five members of the church. Police said that the arrests were made following a counter complaint filed by the village residents on Wednesday.
As per the remand report of the cases, a copy of which is in possession of The Hindu, the members of the church were identified as Anthigalla Raju (38), Appagalla Ramulu (43), Anthigalla Prabhkhar (40), Kolluru Balaiah (54) and Madduri Ramesh (31), all residents of Janwada.
B. Veera Babu, Inspector of Mokila Police station, said that Section 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC was added in the counter complaint, following which the five were arrested and remanded on Thursday.
After the overnight group clash in Janwada between the villagers and the Methodist Church members over road widening, police have so far identified 59 suspects — 34 villagers and 25 members of the church.
The Telangana United Christian Pastors Association (TUCPA) general secretary Goneh Solomon Raj criticised the inclusion of Section 307 in the complaint. “It is unfair to add such a section without any of us using any weapons to retaliate the ambush,” he said.
Corroborating the same, Rajeev Sagar, community representative of the Methodist Church and former chairman of Telangana Food Ltd., said that a legal opinion will be taken into consideration to proceed with the case.
The Mokila police said the accused were booked under provisions of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, under Sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 147 and 148 (Rioting), 224 (resistance or obstruction to arrest), and 503 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.
Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), prohibiting the gathering of five or more persons in the area is in force from February 14 till 11 p.m. on February 21, according orders issued by Cyberabad Police Commissioner Avinash Mohanty.
