Communal tensions triggers in Pune’s Yavat village, one detained 

Communal tensions erupt after mob clashed over a social media post violence in the Yavat village of Maharashtra’s Pune district on Friday (August 1, 2025). Pune Rural Police detained the person, who updated the status concerning an alleged rape incident in Madhya Pradesh. 

According to police, Yavat was peaceful after desecration of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue incident, in which two individuals were taken into custody. “On Friday, the situation erupts over a WhatsApp status. We have taken one person in the custody and start with the process of filing a case,” Special Inspector General (IG) for Kolhapur, Sunil Phulari, adding Section 163 has been imposed and issued a warning to those trying to incite mobs.  

“The stones were hurled on the glass windows of cars. Two car windows were damaged, one motorcycle was also torched, one bakery also damaged. One religious prayer place is also damaged to some extent. It was immediately controlled by the local Police officials,” said IG Phulari. 

The police deployed SRPF and additional police forces to maintain law and order. During the chaos, the two-wheelers and four-wheelers were vandalised. 

Police also shut down the weekly market in Yavat and did punchnamas (documentation) of damages caused in the incident. The situation is under control and peaceful. Almost all routine affairs are now normalised, informed police. 

IG Phulari calling the incident “sudden” stated that strict action will be taken against the few local individuals and outsiders, who were involved. 

While speaking to media, SP Sandip Gill stated the suspects involved in the vandalism and stone-pelting are yet to be detained. 

An eyewitness Sameer Sayyed (39) underlined that after the villagers raised objection over the status, the people from both the community visited the accused house and questioned him why you posted it when things are sensitive.

Mr. Sayyed, a local businessman, called the incident pre-planned, saying, Police just took him the custody, and, in the meanwhile, mob started coming from everywhere causing the violence.

The viral post 

The post which went viral was a collage of a symbolic photo of a child and an image of police station from MP with red background. Referring to a collage clip mentioning - MP, 60-year-old priest raped two girls (5 and 6 years old) inside a temple- the suspect wrote- “Ek aur pandit (priest), ab bolo baghvadhari (saffron-clad). Think, if this is the condition in the age of social media, then what would these people have been doing 50 years back!!“

On July 26 night, an incident of desecration of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj statue caused tensions in Yavat.  

Another eyewitness said the public meeting of MLA Gopichand Padalkar is also one of the reasons for such provocation. On July 31, BJP MLA Gopichand Padalkar took a public meeting, wherein he spoke about desecration incident and called it a “deliberate conspiracy” and urged police to conduct a ‘combing operation’ in Daund taluka to identify and deport the Bangladeshis or Rohingyas. 

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis confirmed lathi charge was used to pacify the tensions and asked, “Is it necessary to make post after speeches? If someone is saying the speech is the reason, then it won’t be tolerated. Some people are purposely putting status to ignite communal tensions. We will ensure the strict actions.” 

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar confirmed that the status was about an incident related to Madhya Pradesh.