Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis yesterday had set a 48 hour deadline to police to nab the culprits. (Source: Express Archive) Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis yesterday had set a 48 hour deadline to police to nab the culprits. (Source: Express Archive)

The Navi Mumbai police on Tuesday arrested four residents of the satellite city in connection with the stone pelting incident at a church in New Panvel last weekend. Police claimed there was no communal angle to the incident.

According to investigators, the accused suspected that a member of the church had complained to the police about their gambling den, and the stone-pelting was a result of that vengeance.

In the wee hours of Saturday, three unidentified men pelted stones at the St George Church in New Panvel, damaging the glass panel protecting the statue of Jesus Christ. The police had at the time registered a case of damage to property and hurting religious sentiments, and had initiated investigations into the incident.

“We got a tip-off from one of our informants that a few days before the incident, a member of the church had been in an argument with a local resident named Rahul Patil. The member had seen Patil and some of his friends drinking liquor and playing cards near the church and had objected to it, after which Patil and his friends had moved to another location. We worked further on this information and found out that on March 19, a couple of days after this argument, police had conducted a raid and taken action against Patil’s friends for running an illegal gambling den. Patil suspected that the raid was conducted on the complaint of the member of the church,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police Sanjay Yenpure.

Yenpure added that Patil then told three of his friends, identified as Anil Chavan, Laxman Sugvekar and Tabrez Sheikh, to throw stones at the church. Patil himself was not present when the crime was committed.

“We traced all the four to their residences in Navi Mumbai and picked them up. After completing further inquiries against them, we placed them under arrest. They will be produced in court on Wednesday,” said Yenpure.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the arrests indicated that the attack was an outcome of revenge following the police raid.

In a statement in the state Legislative Assembly and Council, the CM said, “The reports received show the motive was revenge. There is nothing to suggest the role of any political or social organisation at the moment.”

mumbai.newsline@expressindia.com

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