A personnel of the Indian Army, who was participating in the Kanwar Yatra, was killed near Uttarakhand's Manglaur amid clashes between two groups of kanwariyas on Tuesday, 26 July.
Six accused persons, who are kanwariyas from Haryana, were taken into custody by Chapar Police in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district after they fled the spot.
The police acted on a complaint by one Rajendra from Sisauli in Muzzafarnagar, who lodged an FIR against over 20 people in connection with the murder.
The deceased army personnel, identified as Kartik Baliyan, was from Sisauli and was on a visit to Haridwar as a kanwariya amid the ongoing Kanwar Yatra.
On Tuesday, when he was returning from Haridwar with water from the Ganges, his group from Sisauli got into a dispute with kanwariyas from Haryana on the issue of allegedly overtaking them near Manglaur.
Soon, both sides attacked each other with sticks, during which Kartik was critically injured.
He was then rushed to a local hospital, where doctors declared him brought dead.
Meanwhile, the accused persons fled the spot and were caught by the kanwariyas from Sisauli near Barla in Muzaffarnagar, who handed them over to the Chapar Police. The Chapar Police then reportedly handed them over to the Uttarakhand Police.
As per Karthik's companion and Sisauli resident Omendra, their dak kanwar had overtaken Haryana's kanwariyas near the Nagla Imarti overbridge in Uttarakhand's Roorkee. Following this, the kanwariyas from Haryana parked their bikes in front of them and beat them up.
Karthik was cremated on Tuesday evening.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)