The Telangana Police have arrested 11 people in eight cases after communal clashes broke out in the Gajwel town under the Siddipet district of the state on Monday night when an inebriated man belonging to minority community was found urinating near a statue of Shivaji.

The police also detained BJP MLA of Dubbaka M Raghunandan Rao at the Alwal police station on Wednesday while he was on his way to Gajwel and booked a case against a casino organizer, Chikoti Praveen, for taking out a rally without permission.

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The town comes under Gajwel Assembly constituency represented by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. Recently, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi had said that communal incidents were on the rise in Telangana.

According to Siddipet Police Commissioner N Swetha, the casino organizer Chikoti Praveen was booked for taking out a rally without permission on Tuesday. He had reached the town where prohibitory orders had been in place and taken out a rally. He, along with some others, reached the statue of Shivaji and garlanded and poured milk over it.

Praveen also visited a man injured in the clashes. Later, he said that they would not remain silent if such incident was repeated. He also berated political leaders for not speaking out on the issue adding that they do not deserve the vote of the public.

Praveen has earned notoriety for organising casinos and gambling. He was also in news for keeping several exotic species of animals in his farm house and was raided by the Enforcement Directorate for organising casinos for VIPs including politicians.

Accusing the man who was found urinating near the Shivaji statue of desecrating the statue of an icon, a mob thrashed him, paraded him around and then made him clean the statue.

Later, he was handed over to the police. Meanwhile, another group of people, including the relatives of the accused, thrashed one of those who had beaten up the drunk youth leading to clashes between the two communities. Rightwing groups then swung into action and called a bandh on Tuesday. During the bandh some protestors pelted stones at mosques.

The communal tension in Gajwel has led to large-scale deployment of police. The police commissioner said so far 11 people have been arrested for their involvement in communal clashes. The accused have been remanded in judicial custody for 14 days. She also warned against spreading fake news on social media platforms.