According to news agency ANI, a crowd stormed the trustee of Saat Peer Baba Dargah in Nashik late on Tuesday, injuring at least 21 police officers. During the protests over the destruction of the unapproved Dargah, four cars were also damaged.

22 individuals were detained in connection with the incident after police deployed tear gas and a lathi charge to put an end to it. To destroy the unauthorised Dargah, the Nashik Municipal Corporation sent four JCBs, eight dumpers, and seven trucks to the scene. After hearing a case, the Bombay High Court ordered the dargah to be removed since it was deemed to be unauthorised.

“A team had arrived to remove the illegal structure,” said Kiran Chavan, Deputy Commissioner of Police. But a mob started to object. A famous citizen and the trustee of the dargah attempted to calm them down, but the crowd disregarded their pleas and started throwing stones at the citizen and the police, according to India Today.

Three police officers were first reported wounded, but that number was subsequently raised to 21. Numerous police officers’ cars have also sustained damage. 57 motorbikes that belonged to suspects have been confiscated by police. The corporate authorities were escorted by forty police officers to do demolition work.

According to municipal authorities, over fifty members of the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) participated in the anti-encroachment campaign at the dargah on Wednesday morning, the report said.

In February of this year, the local authority demolished a number of unauthorised buildings close to the Dargah. According to India Today, Devyani Pharande, the MLA for Nashik Central, had previously said that the NMC’s February anti-encroachment campaign was incomplete and that the whole site needed to be cleaned.