With the arrest of three men, the Bangalore police on Saturday claimed to have homed in on the source of the inflammatory messages that led to panic exodus of people from the northeast to their home States since the evening of August 15.
Besides these three, the police have so far arrested 16 people in connection with 15 cases of attack/intimidation of people from the northeast in Bangalore.
Tight-lipped police
Announcing the arrests, Commissioner of Police B.G. Jyothi Prakash Mirji said Anees Pasha (26), Thaseen Nawaz (32) and Shahid Salman Khan (22) were all residents of Bangalore, but refused to divulge any messages these men had sent.
The men were tracked down by a team headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) P.S. Harsha.
A case has been registered at the Koramangala police station against them under Sections 153 (A) and 295 (A) of the Indian Penal Code (promoting enmity between groups, and deliberate and malicious acts) and Section 66 of the Information Technology Act.
A police press note said the team received information about Anees, who owns a cellphone shop, New Fonotech, in Koramangala 7th Block, on Saturday noon that he was spreading rumours through SMS and through videos.
He was arrested and, during interrogation, admitted of having worked with Thaseen and Shahid in sending the bulk SMSs that wrongly depicted the situation in the northeast.
Cases, arrests
Additional Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) T. Sunil Kumar said 16 people had been arrested so far and 15 cases registered in Ashoknagar, J.P. Nagar, Wilson Garden, Mico Layout, Viveknagar, Koramangala and J.J. Nagar police stations.
The four arrested in J.J. Nagar, he said, were creating panic among a group of 20 people. The have been identified as Parvez, Imran Pasha, Muddhazar and Majambeel.
