Bhubaneswar, June 26: Eight persons were sent to jail today after their bail pleas had been rejected by a local court here.

These people were arrested by Kharavela Nagar police for getting involved in a group clash late last night. Four of them sustained injuries in the clash.

Police said the two groups had shops in Giridurga market near Master Canteen Square. Last night they fought over business matters.

Acting on a tip-off, police rushed to the spot and took the injured to Capital Hospital. Police arrested eight of them for indulging in rioting and seized two blood-stained sticks.

The arrested people were identified as Sanjib Kumar Swain, 26, Priyabrata Sabat, 19, Premanand Pradhan, 30 and Dharmendra Pradhan, 28 from one side and Lingaraj Biswal, 25, Sujit Kumar Sahu, 24, Sanjay Rout, 27 and Sushant Rout, 26, from the rival group.

Of them, Priyabrata, Sanjib, Sushant and Sanjay had sustained injuries in the clash.

Police said the clash took place around 10.30pm. At Giridurga market Premanand and Dharmendra had a bookstore alongside another bookstore owned by Sushant and Sanjay.

They were business rivals for sometime.

While Premanand and Dharmendra were folding the polythene cover tied for rain, the bamboo stick hit the shop of their business rival. Soon there started a quarrel, which took an ugly turn as people from both the sides clashed with each other.

Police said people from both the sides lodged complaints against each other. Police registered two cases under sections 506 (criminal intimidation), 379 (theft), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

“We produced them to the court this afternoon,” said a police officer.

Giridurga market houses mainly a market complex having bookstores of reputed publication houses and agencies. These two bookstore owners had been setting their shops in cabins beside the market complex. Police said they used to fight with each other over petty issues.

“As the incident occurred late at night, there were no customers. Otherwise it would have affected our business,” said a shopkeeper of another bookstore inside the complex.