The Uttar Pradesh Police on June 4 arrested the main accused in the violent clashes that erupted after Friday prayers in Kanpur. Hayat Zafar Hashmi and three others were arrested from the Hazaratganj police station area of Lucknow.
Police Commissioner Vijay Singh Meena said Hashmi, along with Javed Ahmed, Mohd Rahil, and Mohd Sufiyan was hiding inside the office of the news portal that Ahmed operates. “We will seek their remand and invoke the National Security Act and the UP Gangsters Act against them,” said Mr. Meena.
Addressing a press conference, the senior official said preliminary investigation and CCTV footage had suggested that the violence was planned. “During interrogation, the arrested have revealed the names of four-five people. We are looking at their links with Popular Front of India through their mobile phone records and bank account details.”
So far 22 persons have been arrested in connection with the violence that broke out after people of a community allegedly tried to get the market closed in protest against the alleged controversial remarks made by Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma against Prophet Mohammad, during a television debate.
The violence occurred on a day when the President, Prime Minister, Chief Minister, and Governor were in the district. Mr. Meena said any laxity on the part of the police would also be probed.
Police personnel mounted on horses patrol in a locality, a day after clashes broke out between two groups over market shutdown, in Kanpur, on June 4, 2022. | Photo Credit: PTI
Three FIRs have been lodged in the case in which 40 people have been charged with rioting and 1,000 others have been mentioned as unidentified. Serious sections of IPC including 148, 149, 153, 307, 323, 336, 504, 507 and section 7 of the Criminal Amendment Act have been invoked in the FIRs.
Police sources said one of the video clippings purportedly showed that the miscreants ferried stones on a hand-driven cart. Reports of a meeting being held in a local mosque ahead of the violence are also being probed.
Local sources said Hashmi, who also heads a social organisation MMA Johar Fans Association, had given a call to court arrest on Friday but after a meeting with the administration decided to only hold the bandh on June 3 and pushed the march to June 5. In the posters, it has been mentioned that the non-Muslim establishments be kept out of the shutdown.
In a video, he could be heard saying that the officials had apprised him that the police would be busy with the VIP movement on June 3, so he has pushed the ‘jail bharo andolan’ to June 5. Hashmi’s wife told reporters that senior police officials knew about the programme beforehand and that her husband was being framed.
At least 40 people, including 20 police personnel, were injured in the violence that broke out in Kanpur after Friday prayers when members of one community, gathered to protest against the controversial remarks made by BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma about Prophet Mohammad, during a television debate, clashed with the police on June 3, 2022. | Photo Credit: PTI
Earlier, on Saturday police conducted a flag march in the area where the clashes took place. Twelve companies of the Provincial Armed Constabulary have been pressed into service to maintain peace.
Meanwhile, the case took a political turn with the BJP releasing photos of Hashmi with Congress leader and Rajya Sabha candidate Imran Pratapgarhi. SP spokesperson Anurag Bhadauria said the BJP was indulging in divisive politics and action should be taken against the BJP leader whose provocative remarks led to the clash.
