HYDERABAD: Police arrested eight persons, including an imam of a mosque, for their role in attacking an RTC bus in Bahadurpura on Monday night following the arrest of MIM supremo Asaduddin Owaisi .

The Bahadurpura police arrested Syed Dastagir alias Jameel, 31, imam of Masjid-e-Badar, Jiyaguda, Mohammed Irfan, 19, an ad agency employee, Mohammed Masood Khan, 19, BCom final year student, Mohammed Ateeq, 18, an optical shop employee, Mohammed Imran, 20, a car denting worker, Mohammed Fahad, 19, of Kamatipura, Mohammed Muneer, 25, a car driver from Chandrayangutta and Syed Shahnawaz Pasha, 22, of Vattepally for the incident.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, deputy commissioner of police (DCP), South Zone, Tarun Joshi said that on January 21 at about 8 pm, the imam along with the other accused hatched a plan to damage RTC buses in Bahadurpura. As per the plan, they went to Mir Alam Tank area in Bahadurpura by 10.30 pm and stopped an RTC bus going from Hyderabad to Yemmiganur (AP 21Y 9639) by hurling stones on its windshield. When the incident happened, there were 35 passengers on the bus.

As soon as the panicked driver M Krishnaiah stopped the bus, they boarded it and poured petrol on the driver, his cabin area and set it on fire. The driver’s seat and steering wheel were burnt partially, while driver Krishnaiah suffered burn injuries on his hands, chest and face, the DCP added.

Alerted by the bus conductor, police rushed to the spot, shifted the driver to Osmania General Hospital and extinguished the fire using water and sand available nearby.

Based on a complaint lodged by bus conductor A Krishnaiah, a case was booked (crime number 17/2013) under sections 147, 148, 307, 353, 427, 435 r/w 149 IPC, 3 & 4 of the PDPP Act & 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act at the Bahadurpura police station.

During investigation, police found out that the attack was carried out by imam Syed Dastagir along with his associates. The imam was arrested from his house on Wednesday afternoon. Based on his confession, police arrested the other culprits from their houses and places of work. On interrogation, they confessed that to protest the arrest of Asaduddin Owaisi they wanted to do something sensational in the city and came up with the idea of damaging RTC buses.

Police seized four bikes and six mobile phones used in the commission of offence from the culprits. The arrested persons were produced before court and remanded in judicial custody.