Eclipse Feast Clash: Eight Traditionalists Arrested For Involving In Violent Brawl

Bhubaneswar: The Commissionerate police on Wednesday arrested eight persons in connection with the clash between rationalists and traditionalists over consumption of food on the Lunar eclipse day.

Kharvela Nagar police had detained eight persons, claimed to be rationalists, over the brawl on Tuesday. They have been arrested today and will be forwarded to court, police said.

The arrest was made based on the complaint of rationalists who had organised a community feast at Lohiya Academy in Bhubaneswar.

The ritualists had sneaked into the academy building and thrashed the feast organizers. In the fight, one from the rationalist group had sustained critical injuries on head.

The community feast organised by rationalists was opposed by a number of people claiming to be traditionalists on Tuesday.

The traditionalists’ group, most of them youths, forcibly entered the Lohia Academy premises when the community feast was going on and attacked the rationalists. As the situation turned volatile and even people who were eating biryani served at the community feast were thrashed, the police intervened. As the condition escalated, the police picked up about 12 members of both groups as a preventive measure.

Meanwhile, a report from Berhampur said that a group claiming to be traditionalists allegedly threw cow dung at a temporary camp where the non-vegetarian feast was served at a community feast. They also tore down posters which said there is no harm in consuming food on and during the lunar or solar eclipse.

Later, the rationalists lodged a complaint at Kharavela Nagar police station following which police detained eight persons from the traditionalists’ group.