65 rioters arrested, curfew imposed in Nagpur

NAGPUR: Curfew imposed in Nagpur after violent clashes led to 65 arrests, with police ensuring control and no fresh incidents reported.

NAGPUR: India’s Orange City, not known for communal strife in contemporary history, sustained its visibility on the national stage with arrests of around 65 rioters and imposition of curfew in areas under 11 police stations, a day after violent clashes took place in the city’s old quarters.

Nagpur: People stand near charred remains of a car at Chitnis Park area amid curfew after violence erupted on Monday night, in Nagpur, early Tuesday, March 18, 2025. Curfew has been imposed in several areas of Maharashtra's Nagpur city after a protest against Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's tomb triggered violence here during which several houses and vehicles were vandalised, officials said on Tuesday. (PTI Photo) (PTI03_18_2025_000065B) (PTI)

Nagpur city police have imposed curfew in several areas in central Nagpur, to prevent further unrest. The curfew order, issued by commissioner of police (CP) Ravinder Kumar Singal under Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), will remain in effect till it is called off. Singal said, till Tuesday evening, of the 65 rioters arrested, 51 including three minors, were produced before court for police custody.

Singal also led a route march through the troubled area of Mahal, where mobs clashed on Monday evening, to send a “strong warning to those looking to foment trouble and instil confidence in the public of the area”. No fresh incidents were reported on Tuesday, and the CP assured that “the situation was fully under control”.

The unrest in central Nagpur began on Monday morning when around 250 members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal gathered near the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in Mahal, and demanded that Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s tomb in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar be removed, raised slogans and set a symbolic grave made of grass aflame. Following the demonstration, the police registered a case against the protesters.

However, later in the evening, tensions escalated following rumours that the make-believe grave was covered with a chadaar on which religious texts were inked. Around 400-500 people gathered at Attar Road, in Chitnis Park, after the evening namaaz, shouted slogans and threatened to set vehicles on fire. Police intervened, leading to arrests. But at around 7:30 pm, another group of approximately 150 people assembled in Bhaldarpura, further intensifying the unrest. The gathering disrupted law and order, causing distress among residents and hindering traffic movement in the area.

The situation took a violent turn in Mahal, where a mob of over 1,000 people engaged in stone-pelting, vandalism and arson. Several police personnel, including three deputy commissioners of police (DCPs) sustained injuries, and multiple vehicles and homes were damaged in the clashes. Of them, the DCP (Zone 5), Niketan Kadam, was severely injured, after he was attacked by miscreants with an axe. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also holds the Home portfolio, spoke to Kadam, who is in the ICU of New Era Hospital, Central Avenue, on a video call on Tuesday afternoon. Kadam has 26 stitches on his right hand, HT has learnt from the treating doctor.

After clashes in Mahal, between 10.30pm and 11.30pm, another clash erupted in the Hansapuri area near old Bhandara Road. An unruly mob set multiple vehicles on fire, vandalized homes and ransacked a clinic, said eyewitnesses – one of them described masked assailants carrying sharp weapons, sticks and bottles going on a rampage.

In Hansapuri, small trader S Gupta, whose four two-wheelers parked outside his home were set ablaze, sustained injuries. He said his neighbour’s shop was ransacked and alleged that police arrived nearly an hour after the violence. A woman from the locality added, as the blaze spread residents poured water from the first floor of their homes before the fire brigade arrived.

Another trader Vasant Kawle, said the miscreants who had their faces covered, “deliberately broke CCTV cameras in the area and attempted to force their way into our homes”.

A tea stall owner near a clinic stated that the rioters entered the medical facility, smashed tables and damaged medical supplies before wrecking his stall as well.

VHP general secretary from Vidarbha, Rajkumar Sharma, alleged, “The attack was pre-planned, and the moulvi of a local mosque instigated the mob which later ran amok. I demand his and his associates’ arrest under the National Security Act.”

Maharashtra revenue minister and Nagpur guardian minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule, visited the injured at government and private hospitals. BJP MLA Pravin Datke, from the Central Nagpur assembly constituency, criticized the police for “an intelligence failure, as they failed to prevent a pre-planned attack”. Many schools and colleges in central Nagpur remained closed on Tuesday.