Police said a village in Gurugram village was set on fire by unidentified people in the early hours of Monday.
According to the complaint filed by caretaker Ghasite Ram from Barabanki district in Uttar Pradesh, everything was fine at the Khandsa village Mazar when he left his home in the Feroz Gandhi settlement from the Mazar at 8:30 p.m. Sunday.
“Around 1:30 a.m., I received a call from someone who lived near the Mazar saying it had been set on fire by unidentified people,” he said in a complaint filed with the 37th precinct police station.
He said the fire was brought under control with the help of residents. "But when I got there and saw, the offerings in the Mazar's door were burned. What I do know is that a group of 5-6 boys gathered there and burned the Mazar," he said in FIR.
He said it hurt people's trust and "could cause riots in society". "Measures must be taken against the accused," he demanded.
Ram said he has worked at the Mazar for about seven years and has seen "people from all religions pay their respects there".
He told PTI on Monday morning: "This is a decades-old mazar of Baba's age and all the villagers revere here. Maybe it was foreigners who burned the mazar." It comes even as Article 144 applies to Gurugram after community clashes that began in neighboring Nuh district spread to Gurugram's areas last week.
The FIR has been registered against unidentified individuals under Section 34 (acts committed by several persons for the purpose of achieving a common purpose), 153A (promoting hostility between different groups), 188 ( disobeying an official's orders), 436 (playing with fire or explosives with the intention of destroying the house) of the IPC, police said.
A senior police officer said they were trying to identify the defendants and arrest them.
Police also said a restaurant (dhaba) near Rathiwas village burned down on Saturday night and an FIR was registered at Bilaspur police station on the same day. Meanwhile, Gurugram police also said they had arrested 15 people accused of violence in Sohna on Sunday evening and that they had been detained by the city court.
