Surat: People of Abhva village on the outskirts of the city gheraoed a police team after cops thrashed some locals and took keys of their vehicles on Sunday. Later, meeting of a peace committee was held at Dumas police station to discuss the issue.Police officials claimed that keys of the vehicles of some individuals were taken because of a misunderstanding, but they were returned soon. Videos of the incident went viral in which locals can be seen shouting at the police team.Villagers said in a fight between two bootleggers, one of them called police control room and sought help. “A police team reached the spot. Cops noticed a few people sitting on road. Police thrashed them and took keys of their vehicles suspecting them to be involved in the dispute,” a villager said.Villagers did not allow cops to leave the spot and tried to snatch the keys of the police van. Senior officials rushed to the spot with additional force and brought the situation under control. The trouble began at around 12.30am and lasted for a couple of hours.“Police had gone to the village to raid bootlegging activity. Cops saw some people sitting in open and suspecting them to be miscreants, took keys of their vehicles. However, they were common people keeping a watch in the area,” said A K Varma, assistant commissioner of police.“The villagers registered their protest over the police action and a meeting of peace committee was held. Police asked locals to provide a list of people who kept watch in the area at night to avoid confusions in future,” Varma added.Meanwhile, police registered 23 cases of bootlegging at Dumas police station after the incident.

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