The city police team probing the violence during a High Court march of the Muslim Ekopana Samithy on May 29 is slated to file the charge sheet in two weeks.
As part of it, the police have initiated proceedings to obtain a nod from the State Home Department for initiating action against the accused under IPC 153 for promoting enmity between different groups. “We plan to make maximum number of arrests in the next two weeks and a charge sheet will be filed against them on receiving a nod from the Home Department. The police have traced locations of several of the accused who were at the forefront of the march, and have been absconding ever since the incident,” said K. Laljy, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Kochi city.
Though about 3,000 persons had taken part in the march, the police later identified 40 persons, including leaders of the SDPI and Popular Front, responsible for holding the march and a state-wide search is on to trace their location. The police have logged a case against them under Sections 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) and 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups, obstruction of public way, among others).
Official sources said the absconding persons had taken refuge in some sensitive areas where the police could not enter without problems and arrest them.
One more held
Meanwhile, the police on Monday arrested one more person, identified as Anwar of Mattancherry, taking the total number of arrests in connection with the case to 11. Among these, Sageer and Mohammed Sheriff, both natives of North Paravur, have been in police custody since Monday for detailed interrogation.
The march towards the Kerala High Court was in protest against a judgement nullifying a marriage conducted by one qazi between a Muslim man and a Hindu woman.
The protest march, in which about 3,000 persons had taken part, began from Kaloor and was blocked in front of St.Albert’s College here with the police erecting barricades across the road. As they attempted to topple the barricades and proceed further, the police resorted to cane charging and used water cannons to disperse the mob.
