A total of 29 people were arrested for arson and damaging the property of forest department in Khitoli village, Katni, on Saturday. They were sent to jail. Among those arrested are BJP's local leaders Ambika Prasad Dwivedi and Pradeep Tiwari.
The villagers got agitated when a tiger killed a man at the village on Friday. The village falls in the buffer zone of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, Umaria.
Read:Tiger kills man in Madhya Pradesh tiger reserve
Katni superintendent of police Rajesh Hingankar said two cases were lodged against the villagers at Barhi police station on the complaint of the forest department and the police. The forest department lodged the complaint against the villagers for setting ablaze and damaging government property, while the police lodged the complaint for assaulting and injuring three police personnel including Khitoli police post in-charge Priyanka Kewat.
The police personnel are undergoing treatment at Katni district hospital. The villagers even manhandled some local media persons and broke the camera of lensman Tukaram Vishwakarma.