VMC’s cattle impounding team attacked, 1 injured

Vadodara: A major ruckus took place when a cattle impounding team of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) tried to catch a cow in the Chhani Jakatnaka area of the city around midnight on Tuesday. A prominent Congress corporator from the area Jaha Desai was also involved in the ruckus.
A video clip of Desai reaching the spot surfaced on social media on Wednesday. The video shows persons with sticks objecting to the use of expletives by someone from the cattle impounding team. Desai is also seen using expletives against the team members and defending someone from those involved in the ruckus saying that the person was his brother.
Police said that one VMC worker was injured in the ruckus and they have arrested five persons in connection with the violence.
An offence registered regarding the incident at the Fatehgunj police station by market supervisor Pradeep Lokhande states that one Nandu Bharwad and seven to eight other persons were involved in an attack on the cattle party using sticks. They also abused the members of the team and left a worker Rohan Lokhande injured.
Jaha Bharwad, Govind Bharwad, Nandu Bharwad, Madhu Bharwad and Hayama Bharwad were arrested in connection with the offence. While Desai was not named in the offence, he went incommunicado and could not be reached for comment. A VMC official said that the video of the incident was provided to the police for investigations too. Officials, however, refrained from commenting on why the corporator was not named in the offence. The VMC team that included a policeman too had received a message from the police control room regarding stray cows in the Chhani area of the city. However, when the team was on its way it spotted a cow near the Military Boys Hostel in the Chhani Jakatnaka area. The team stopped there and tied the cow to the pickup truck it was using.
Nandu allegedly came to the spot at this time and objected to impounding of a cow. He said that the team had come to the area on Monday too and should not have come there again. Seven to eight other persons wielding sticks joined him.
A ruckus took place in which Rohan was hit by one of the accused with a stick. The accused freed the cow and left the place.