A senior official said that a local BJP leader and 12 others have been arrested by the police here in connection with the Kanpur violence, taking the total number of those arrested to 51. Around 10 more suspects have been taken into custody for questioning. Besides this, a 16-year-old boy entered the Colonelganj police station and surrendered after his photograph appeared on the posters put up by the police, said DCP (East) Pramod Kumar. ADGP (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said that Harshit Srivastava, former district secretary of BJP Yuva Morcha, has been arrested for posting inflammatory content on social media platforms.
Violence broke out in parts of Kanpur after Friday prayers as members of two communities pelted bricks during a TV debate over attempts to shut down shops in protest against “derogatory” remarks on Prophet Mohammad by BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. And bombs were thrown. Pramod Kumar said the Kotwali police on Tuesday filed another FIR against the people behind two Facebook accounts and three Twitter handles for spreading “fake and inflammatory content” about the June 3 violence, against the number of such cases booked so far. The number of users has gone up to 13, Pramod Kumar said.
The DCP said that an FIR has been registered against the operators of Twitter handles “Duggalsaheb15”, “Shivayasarial” and “Akhand Bharat” and two Facebook account holders Abu Zaid and Kaushal Patel. Another senior official said that the district administration has sealed a petrol pump located near the Deputy Padav crossing after a CCTV footage showed people taking fuel in bottles from the filling station ahead of Friday’s clash. He said that since the sale of petrol in bottles is prohibited, the license of the petrol pump has been suspended till further investigation.
During the investigation, it has come to the fore that the rioters had come from far and wide from different districts and localities. The official said the SIT has focused its attention on those who could be the prime conspirators and may have provided funds for the riots. Besides this, the police have also started investigation into the role of Zara Hayat, wife of a key conspirator, Zafar Hayat Hashmi, who was arrested from Lucknow’s Hazratganj on Saturday. The official said the evidence collected by the SIT raised suspicion on Zara Hayat, who was the administrator of several WhatsApp groups.
On Monday, Kanpur Police released posters containing 40 photographs of those involved in the violence. The police are said to have collected photographs of the alleged accused through several videos of the incident, including those captured on CCTV and mobile phones.
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