Crime Today News
Zafar Ali, chairman of the managing committee of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal, was on Sunday arrested for allegedly inciting a mob during communal violence that broke out in the region on November 24 during a court-ordered a survey of the masjid to determine whether a Hindu temple had existed in its place, reported The Indian Express.
Five persons were killed in the clashes. A few days after the violence, Zafar Ali claimed at a press conference that four persons had died in police firing.
“We had gathered evidence that he played an incendiary role during the violence last year,” Sambhal Superintendent of Police Krishna Kumar was quoted as saying by the newspaper. “He was picked up by the police from his house in Sambhal Sunday morning and was interrogated at Kotwali police station by senior cops before being finally arrested.”
Zafar Ali had been detained on November 25 but was released after interrogation.
“Ali had been on the radar of the Sambhal police since November 24, and that was why we picked him up for interrogation last year,” said Sambhal Additional Superintendent of Police Shirish Chand. “But for lack of proper evidence, we had to release him, and since then we had been gathering more clinching evidence, and today he has been arrested.”
Security was heightened in the area on Sunday, with personnel from the Rapid Action Force and the Provincial Armed Constabulary deployed near the mosque and Zafar Ali’s residence, about 100 metres away.
Zafar Ali’s elder brother, Tahir Ali, said: “Two policemen came to our residence around 11.30 am today. They said that fresh statements of Zafar Ali have to be recorded regarding the violence, and they took him to the local Kotwali police station.”
Tahir Ali alleged that the arrest was aimed at preventing his brother from appearing before a judicial committee investigating the violence. “He will not backtrack from his earlier statement that four deaths during the violence on November 24 were caused by police firing,” Tahir Ali said.
“The local administration is leaving no stone unturned to wedge a rift between the two communities in Sambhal, especially after November 24,” Tahir Ali said. “We want to bury the hatchet, but all higher police and administrative officials do not want Hindu and Muslim brothers to live here peacefully. We will take up the issue of his arrest in the High Court.”
The authorities have so far arrested 79 people, including three women, in connection with the violence. At least 130 bail applications have been filed on their behalf in the Chandausi court in Sambhal, but no one has been granted bail yet.
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