In the first civilian arrests since the Dhule riots on January 6, the CID (crime), along with the local police, arrested 11 men in the early hours of Saturday. All the accused were produced in a local court later in the day and remanded to police custody till February 26.
The 11 arrested — Kalim Mohammed, Rafique Ahmed, Zakir Ansari, Wahid Khatik, Zubair Shaikh, Salman Hafiz, Siddharth Jaywant,
Sanjay Aherao, Rakesh Kadhre, Mahesh Thorat and Pankaj Suryawanshi — live in areas close to the epicentre of the January 6 riots.
“They were arrested at around 3 am on Saturday, based on oral evidence of eyewitnesses, names in the FIR and identification from the video footage of the riots. The magisterial court granted us custody till February 26 and we are interrogating them about their individual roles in the riots,” said Dhule deputy superintendent of police CID (crime), G.B. Patil.
Advocate Nadeem Ansari, who is representing two of the accused said, “The accused were booked under Sections 143, 147, 148, 149, 307, 332, 333, 337, 338, 353, 435, 436, 452 of the IPC, and Sections 4 and 25 of the Arms Act. Some of the accused are absconding.”
Explaining why these men were picked up at such odd hours, Mr Patil said, “The police can arrest the accused at any point
during the day. Carrying out such operations during the day poses law and order problems. It is relatively easier at night as communities are not disturbed.”
On the condition of anonymity, the brother of one of the accused said that the police broke into their house through the back door. “On the day of the riots my brother was in Devpur, which is 10 kilometres from the riot affected area and returned only later that evening to Tiranga Chowk, near where the riots took place,” he said.