The crime branch on Sun-day claimed that Satur-day’s riots near Azad Mai-dan were pre-planned and, in connection with this, 23 persons were arrested and booked for murder, atte-mpt to murder, molestati-on, dacoity and rioting and under other sections of the IPC. The accused were produced before the magistrate’s court, which rem-anded them in police custody till August 19. Most of the accused are from Ban-dra, Kurla and Mumbra areas. The organisers of the rally, which led to the violence, the Raza Acad-emy and Madina-tul-ilm, have also been shown as accused.
JCP (crime) Himanshu Roy said they would be exa-mining the speeches given by five persons. “The cyber cell also will be probing how the event was promoted on social networking site Facebook and by circulating MMSes of the Assam violence,” he said.
The rioters had also sto-len two rifles, a pistol and 160 bullets from the policemen. “We have recovered two SLRs, one of which was in a broken-down condition, from the area where the violence took place, while the pistol is still missing,” said Mr Roy.
Another senior crime branch officer confirmed that the initial investigation indicates that it could be a well-planned riot. “The GRP has captured CCTV footage of mobs boarding from Kurla and alighting at CST. We also have CCTV footage of the mob carrying petrol cans and also spilling them on vehicles and setting them on fire,” said the officer.