The District Magistrate of Amethi Jagatraj Tripathi, on Sunday informed that 18 people have been arrested so far following the clash between supporters Congress Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh and his son Anant Vikram Singh.
"As soon as we got the information, me and.... rushed to the spot and cleared the road and imposed Section 144. Now there is peace in the area. We will investigate the matter. Till now, 18 have been arrested and whoever takes the law in his hand we will take strict action against him. This is very unfortunate," said Tripathi.
A media person covering the incident also got hurt during the police baton charge. He has been admitted to the hospital with serious injuries.
Tripathi called it unfortunate and said that the policemen may have not recognized the media person as the situation went out of control.
However, the media person said that the police first broke their camera and then around 20-25 policemen beat him. The incident took place in front of Sanjay Singh's ancestral Bhupati Bhawan Palace in Amethi's Ram Nagar area also known as the residence of the "Raja of Amethi".
"Today Sanjay Singh was supposed to come here but some people were opposing it. Anant Vikram Singh provoked the protesters after which they came on road and started protesting, they stone pelted on the police after which police had to also resort to baton charge," Tripathi said while explaining the entire incident.
"Later it increased as a huge mob gathered on the roads, due to which the tear gas was also released and in the meanwhile somebody fired due to which unfortunately one policeman died," he added.
Meanwhile, the local residents here complained that many of their shops and houses were also wrecked due to the clash.
"They broke the locks of our shops and hit the ladies and children. The police has only asked us to close the shops because the 'king' was about to come, we did that but then too they broke the locks," said Shashi Gupta, a local resident here.
The father-son duo has been undergoing a rift over property dispute. The issue is regarding the ownership of Sanjay Singh's ancestral Bhupati Bhawan Palace in Amethi's Ram Nagar area also known as the residence of the "Raja of Amethi".
Sanjay' first wife Garima had returned after 18 years in July this year, claiming to be his lawfully wedded wife. She entered the palace with three of her children, Anant being one of them. She had also declared to not let Sanjay's second wife and former Amethi MLA Ameeta Singh enter the palace.
Sanjay had earlier claimed to have divorced Garima 20 years ago. Garima, however, rubbished his claims, and said that it was a fraud and was declared null and void by the Supreme Court. Later, Garima occupied two rooms and a make shift kitchen in the palace.
Anant had earlier lodged a series of FIRs against the caretakers of the palace for torturing his family. Today's clash broke out as Sanjay and Ameeta were about to arrive in Amethi and enter the palace.
