Angered by old video clip, mob attacks police station

SURAT: Police lobbed 24 teargas shells to disperse a 500-strong mob that was pelting Limbayat police station with stones here on Sunday midnight. The mob belonging to minority community was agitated over remarks made by some people about their religious leaders in a video that had gone viral on social media. Meanwhile, Abeysingh alias Amit Rathod and his three associates were arrested for hurting the religious sentiments of members of the minority community by Limbayat police that also registered a case of rioting against the mob.
Heavy police bandobast was made in Limbayat area of the city which remained incident-free on Monday.
Sources said the two-month-old video of Rathod and his three associates insulting and beating up two workers from West Bengal began to circulate in the area that has a sizeable population of migrant workers. They can been seen in the video clip of 2.43 minute duration asking the workers to return to West Bengal. This aroused the passion of the members of the minority community and soon the mob marched up to Limbayat police station to demand the arrest of the accused.
"We registered a complaint against the four who are visible in the video clip. However, the mob was not satisfied and asked that they be handed over to it. The mob became violent and we were forced to lob teargas shells to disperse it," police inspector B M Parmar said.
City police commissioner Ashish Bhatia said, "The investigations have been handed over to Detection Crime Branch and four arrests made in the case. We will seek their remand."
Rathod and his associates have been booked under IT Act sections 66 and 67 and IPC sections 323, 452,504, 114, 315, 153,153(B) and 295. The mob has been booked under IPC sections 141, 143, 145, 147, 332 and 336 and BP Act section 135.