Anti-Padmaavat violence probe handed to SIT, 5 more arrested

GURUGRAM: Five youths were arrested on Saturday for blocking the Gurugram-Palwal road in Sohna where a mob attacked school buses and burnt a state transport bus last Wednesday (January 24), hours before the first screening of the film Padmaavat in the city.

Also Read: Padmaavat Movie Review

Police

also set up a special investigation team (SIT) that will look at how protests against the film were fanned in the city and eventually turned violent. Saturday’s five arrests took the number of people taken into custody since Wednesday’s violence to 42 — 28 arrested and 14 detained, including Suraj Pal Amu, the Karni Sena general secretary who was till recently a member of the

Haryana BJP

.

The men who were arrested on Saturday are Raghu, Sandeep, Manish, Luvkush and Omprakash, all residents of Roz Ka Meo in Mewat. A police spokesperson said the men were arrested from Silani Mod in Sohna.

Amu’s counsel AP Singh, meanwhile, held a press conference on Saturday evening at the former BJP functionary’s home in Gurugram, saying Amu was in poor health and was not being allowed to take his medicines or being fed properly in Bhondsi jail, where he is lodged. Singh, a senior Delhi high court lawyer, also claimed there was a threat to his Amu’s life in the prison.

DCP (south) Ashok Bakshi, who will head the SIT probing the anti-Padmaavat violence, told TOI Amu will be taken on production warrant on Monday and interrogated by police. Police sources also said Amu could be charged under sections of the Indian Penal Code, depending on the police findings on Monday. Currently, he is in preventive custody under sections of the Criminal Procedure Code.

A police spokesperson said eight cases had so far been filed at various police stations in the city, including the one at Bhondsi where the arson and attack on the school buses happened on Wednesday.

Bakshi said he would be investigating the series of incidents that took place around Bhondsi, in which the school buses and the Roadways bus were attacked. The mob had also attack a fire engine and police personnel who were the first to reach the spot. “We are still probing. Raids are still being conducted, and more arrests are expected to be made,” said Bakshi.

ACP Sadar Inderjit Singh said two more instances of violence, including the burning of a truck on late on Wednesday and the smashing of glass panes at Raheja mall on the day of Padmaavat’s release, were being probed too.

“No arrests have been made so far. The people who conducted the attacks are on our radar and are currently absconding. We will arrest them soon,” he said. “Strenuous efforts are being made to arrest the remaining hooligans who were involved in the violent incidents which occurred in different locations,” a police spokesperson added.