A group of kanwariyas travelling to Delhi from Haridwar attacked an SUV driver and damaged his vehicle, which had “police” stickers pasted on it, after it brushed against one of them in Ghaziabad on Monday.

The incident occurred on the Duhai Kanwar route along National Highway 58 which falls under the jurisdiction of Madhuban-Bapudham police station.

Eyewitnesses said a large group of kanwariyas, returning from Haridwar with holy water from the Ganga, was headed to Delhi when the SUV brushed against one of them around 10.10am.

Avanish Tyagi, the driver of the SUV, was quoted as saying: “They stopped the car and attacked me. They then overturned the vehicle and damaged it with lathis and bricks.”

He added: “The SUV belongs to the police department and is currently deputed for the vigilance team of the power corporation.”

The police took him for a medical examination.

Abhishek Srivastava, the Ghaziabad additional commissioner of police, said: “The car doesn’t belong to the police department. The driver wrongly entered the lane reserved for the kanwariyas. We have seized the car and taken the driver into custody.”

A source, however, said the police had rented the SUV but, for some reason, assigned it to state power corporation officials.

“Since the kanwariyas claimed their holy water had spilled onto the ground after the SUV hit them, the police provided them with Gangajal from the force’s own stocks. The kanwariyas stayed for a few hours at the Vidhan Public School along the road where arrangements had been made for them. They then left,” a police officer in Lucknow said.

Around 4pm on Sunday, another group of kanwariyas damaged a car in Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, after the vehicle grazed a pilgrim’s kanwar (the balancing stick at both ends of which the kanwariyas carry pitchers of the holy water).