Lucknow: The Lucknow police made the fifth arrest in the mall 'namaz' offering case on Saturday.
The arrested person was identified as Mohammed
Adil (23). He was arrested from Saadatganj where he worked as a goldsmith. The police have already launched a manhunt for three more accused.
The police said that eight persons were found offering prayers on the third floor of the mall on July 12, a video of which had gone viral on social media.
Later, an FIR was lodged and four persons, identified as Mohammed Rehan, Atif Khan, Lukmaan Ali and
Nauman Ali, were arrested.
Additional deputy commissioner of police, south zone, Rajesh Srivastava said that Adil was arrested based on the ‘registration number of a bike’ used by him and his friends to enter the mall on July 12. “We had captured the image of Adil entering from a bike along with others and later dining at one of the eating outlets,” said Srivastava.
A police team first traced the number of the bike which was registered in the name of a person who is not residing in UP and had sold his bike to somebody in Sitapur.
“A police team was assigned the case which found that the bike was sold again to somebody in Hardoi and finally a friend of Adil was zeroed in,” added Srivastava. A team finally nabbed Adil from near Chaupatiya lane late on Friday night.
“During questioning, Adil revealed that he had gone to visit the mall along with his friends on July 12 and after the visit spotted others offering prayers. Hence, he tried to be a part of it. Other than that, he had no malafide intention,” said Srivastava.
ADCP also said that police teams are also tracing others involved in offering prayers.