The Mumbai Crime Branch is making confidential enquiries about a purported Bangladeshi passport recently shown to the protesting crowd by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray at Azad Maidan. He had claimed that the passport was recovered at the place after the August 11 riots, and belonged to a Bangladeshi migrant involved in the violence.
Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Himanshu Roy told reporters here that the department was investigating. He refused to give further details.
Meanwhile, the Crime Branch arrested on Friday two more persons in connection with the riots. One was caught on CCTV torching a TV channel’s OB van while the other was seen hitting a police constable with footwear. A local court remanded the two in police custody till August 30.
“One of them is a resident of Antop hill area while the other is from Govandi. We have strong videographic evidence against them,” Mr. Roy said.
With the fresh arrests, the number of those behind bars in the case has risen to 50. The police are expecting to arrest a few more, especially the desecrators of the Amar Jawan memorial.
The names of those arrested on Friday are: Tabrez Mohammad Jamal Syed (24) and Wasim Noor Mohammad Khan (23). Those arrested the previous day are: Javed Alam Tauffik alias Javed Fawda (29), Abdul Khalid (42), Sameer Mahmood (37), Mujib Rahman Khan (38) and Arbaz Gulam Shaikh (33).
Police will verify if any of the arrested is from Bangladesh.
The police are also scouring Govandi area after it came to light that a person travelling on a train was hit by a bullet of a police self-loading rifle (SLR) on August 11. “Someone threw the bullet at the train. It was not fired. A youth lost a tooth after the bullet hit his face,” an official said on condition of anonymity.
