The Uttar Pradesh Police on Saturday arrested the main accused in the violent clashes that erupted in Kanpur after Friday prayers. Hayat Zafar Hashmi and five others were arrested from the Hazratganj police station area of Lucknow. Police Commissioner Vijay Singh Meena said Mr. Hashmi, along with five others, was hiding at the office of the news portal that Mr. Hashmi operates. “We will seek their remand and invoke the National Security Act and the Gangster’s Act against them,” said Mr. Meena.
Addressing a press conference, the senior official said preliminary investigation and CCTV footage had suggested that the violence was planned. “During interrogation, the arrested have revealed the names of four-five people. We are looking at their links with Popular Front of India through their mobile phone records and bank account details.”
So far 24 persons have been arrested in connection with the violence that broke out after people of a community allegedly tried to get the market closed in protest against the alleged controversial remarks made by Bharatiya Janta Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma against Prophet Mohammad, during a television debate.
The violence occurred on the day when the President Ramnath Kovind, Prime Minister Modi, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and UP Governor Anandiben Patel were present in the district. Mr. Meena said any laxity on the part of the police would also be probed.
Three FIRs have been lodged in the case in which 40 people have been charged with rioting, and 1000 others have been mentioned as ‘unidentified’.
Police sources said one of the video clippings purportedly showed that the miscreants ferried stones on a hand-driven cart. Reports of a meeting being held in a local mosque ahead of the violence are also being probed.
Local sources said Mr. Hashmi, who also heads a social organisation MMA Johar Fans Association, had given a call to Muslims to court arrest on Friday against the dishonouring of the Prophet but following a meeting with the administration, had decided to just hold the bandh on June 3, pushing the protest march to June 5.
In a video, Mr. Hashmi could be heard saying that the officials had apprised him that the police would be busy with the VIP movement on June 3, so he has pushed the ‘jail bharo andolan’ to June 5.
In the posters, it had been mentioned that non-Muslim establishments would be kept out of the June 3 shutdown, although some miscreants tried to force non-Muslim establishments also to down the shutters, leading to the violence.
The case took a political turn with the BJP releasing photos of Mr. Hashmi with the Congress leader and Rajya Sabha candidate Imran Pratapgarhi. SP spokesperson Anurag Bhadauria said the BJP was indulging in divisive politics and action should be taken against the BJP leader, whose provocative remarks led to the clash.
