The rape and murder of a six-year old child in a tribal village in Maharashtra’s Jalgaon led to violence late on Thursday night that left over 10 policemen including an officer of inspector rank injured.

The girl, from a tribal family in Chinchkheda village of Jalgaon’s Jamner, around 160 km north of Aurangabad, was raped and murdered on June 11. The accused, identified as 35-year old Subhas Bheel, was absconding since then.

Bheel was arrested from Bhusawal, about 29 km from Jamner, and the police brought him back to the town in handcuffs on Thursday.

Around 10.30pm, a mob of around 300 people surrounded the Jamner police station, demanding the accused be handed over to them.

“The mob blocked the road and kept saying the accused be handed over to them, be hanged, tried in a fast-track court. There were all kinds of demands. Then the crowd turned violent,” said a police officer.

Stones were pelted at the cops, injuring inspector Kiran Shinde and seven-eight other policemen, most of them hit on the head by the stones. Some bikes parked on the roadside were set ablaze.

The police had to lathicharge and also fire in the air to disperse the mob.

“The people were agitated and upset with the brutal assault and murder of the little girl,” said an officer of Jamner police station. “They surrounded the police station and started raising slogans. Little later, the first stones came raining towards us. We locked the gate and stood inside.”

The area around the police station resembled a mini battlefield after the mob had been pushed back and ambulances arranged to take the injured cops to the hospital for treatment.

“We tried to reason with the people who had assembled that the law will take its own course, but they would not listen,” said Ashok Nakhate, additional superintendent of police, Jalgaon. “Seven or eight of our policemen were injured. We have got the visuals and other details of the people who were involved in the incident. Arrests have been made and the situation is under control now. Legal proceedings will be initiated,”

Chinchkheda and Jamner remained tense on Friday morning with heavy police deployment to prevent any further escalation of violence. The tribal population in Jamner is around 40,000.

The accused, Bheel, will be produced in court later in the day.

The Jamner MLA and Maharashtra rural development minister Girish Mahajan in a post on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter) wrote: “The outcry and anger of the people seen in Jamner last night is justified. Any sensitive citizen should be outraged by the atrocity involved in the murder. I am as angry and distressed as you are by this unfortunate incident. But my humble request to all please keep your emotions in check. No one should take the law into their hands.”

“Let the investigation agencies do their work. A strict punishment has been ordered to ensure maximum punishment to the guilty,” Mahajan wrote, assuring that he was personally monitoring the probe and has instructed the district administration to extend all help to the victim’s family.