More arrests likely in constable’s death; 712 FIRs filed over violence

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police has made a breakthrough in the killings of head constable Ratan Lal and Intelligence Bureau official Ankit Sharma during the northeast Delhi riots and made 12 fresh arrests in these and other riot cases.While seven people have been arrested for Lal’s murder, a 20-year-old man has been arrested in Sharma’s case. Police have made four more arrests in other murders during the riots.Two men, Ankit and Sumit, have been arrested for the murders of four victims whose bodies were recovered from drains in the area. Earlier, Lokesh Sharma and Pankaj were arrested in these cases. Two brothers, Arun and Varun, have been arrested in the case of arson at a house in which an 85-year-old woman had suffocated to death.For Sharma’s murder, police said they had arrested Mohammed Haseen Qureshi(20), a resident of Sunder Nagri, who had allegedly stabbed Sharma three times and accompanied the mob in throwing the body in the drain. Qureshi belongs to Aligarh..In Lal’s case, the arrested men have been identified as Saleem Malik, Mohammed Jalaluddin, Mohammed Ayub, Mohammed Yunus, Arif and Saleem Khan from Chand Bagh, and Mohammed Danish from Loni, Ghaziabad. The police have termed the murder a conspiracy.Police said around 712 FIRs have been registered in connection with the riots. While over 2,000 people have been apprehended since the riots broke out, the role of around 200 persons has been established and they have been placed under arrest.Police said the number of arrests in the case of Lal’s murder could go up substantially and the seven arrested men are being interrogated about the identity of other rioters and killers. Malik, 38, owns a women’s garment shop, Jalaluddin, 33, is a property dealer, Ayub, 35, runs a garment shop, Yunus, 32, sells garments in the weekly market, Arif, 27, is a helper at a garment shop, Mohammad Danish, 23, is a cab driver and Saleem Khan, 46, runs a cloth manufacturing unit in Chand Bagh and exports clothes to Europe and north America.The probe has revealed that the spot where Lal’s murder took place was the venue for an anti-CAA protest. That morning, the crowd had allegedly hatched a conspiracy to attack the police party and pretended to be ready for negotiations. As an outnumbered police team came close, the mob attacked them. In the melee, Lal was killed, and an ACP and a DCP injured, the latter quite seriously. The arrested men lived in lane number 3 and 8 of Chand Bagh.In the case of death of Akbari (85), it has come to fore that a crowd had built up in the locality around11am on February 25. The mob entered her house after breaking the lock and set it on fire. While the family and 10 employees rushed to the top floor of the house to save themselves, Akbari, who was on the second floor, was left behind. The police, which had arrived at the spot, launched a rescue operation and rescued everyone form the terrace with help from locals. The crowd had also ransacked the house and made away with cash and valuables. Akbari had died due to asphyxia and her body could be retrieved after around 10 hours when the fire brigade managed to bring the blaze under control. The arrested brothers — Arun, 26, and Varun, 22 — lived in lane number 3 of Gamri village. They were identified on the basis of video clippings as well as the identification by the some locals/eyewitnesses.In the case of four bodies recovered from the drains of Bhagirathi Vihar and Johripur on February 27, it has come to fore that a mob had positioned themselves on the Johripur-Bhagirathi Vihar pulia and killed the four who happened to pass from there.Two of the victims were brothers — Amir Ali, 31, and Hashim, 19. Their father, Babu Khan, a tailor, had sent them to their maternal home on February 23 as the situation was tense in the area. After two days, he called his sons and asked them to return as the situation had seemingly become normal. Amir and Hashim reached Gokalpuri area around 9.30pm on their bike and called their brother Sheruddin to come out to the lane as they were feeling scared.However, the brothers disappeared after that and couldn’t be traced. On February 28, the family identified the bodies of the brothers. Their bike had been burnt and thrown in the drain.The third victim was a mechanic named Aqil Ahmed. Father of four children, Ahmed had left his Loni home to meet his brother-in-law at New Mustfabad but he never reached there. When his wife, Zahira, could not contact him over phone, she along with her relatives came to Delhi and identified the body at GTB mortuary. The fourth body was that of one Musharraf whowas dragged out of his 2nd-floor home in the presence of his wife and children by rioters. Musharraf was beaten to death and his body thrown in the Bhagirathi Vihar drain. His wife identified the body at the mortuary. These four cases have been sent to Delhi Legal Services Authority for compensation.