Delhi police said they have registered 690 cases and held nearly 2,200 people in connection with the communal riots that took place in northeast Delhi, claiming 53 lives and injuring over 200. Of the total cases registered, 48 were related to Arms Act, police said in a statement.
They said 2,193 people have been either detained or arrested in connection with the riots. Of them, 50 have been arrested on charges under the Arms Act.
Meanwhile, a 27-year-old man was arrested for allegedly being involved in another man’s death during the violence. The crime branch, probing the murder cases registered during the riots, arrested Shahnawaz for allegedly killing Dilbar Singh Negi, 20, and is trying to identify other suspects in the case.
Negi’s, whose decapitated and charred body was found in Brahmpuri on 26 February, had come to the National Capital six months ago from Uttarakhand’s Pauri Garhwal and worked at a sweet shop in northeast Delhi.
A Delhi court allowed police three more days’ custodial interrogation of Shahrukh Pathan, who allegedly pointed a gun at an unarmed police head constable during the riots in Maujpur.
Pathan, 23, whose photograph pointing a gun at head constable Deepak Dahia had gone viral on social media, was arrested on Tuesday from Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli district.
The pistol he pointed at Dahia was recovered from his home in northeast Delhi’s Ghonda. In a viral video, Pathan was seen pointing his pistol at the policeman on Jaffrabad-Maujpur road on 24 February. After opening fire in the air, he kept the pistol at his residence and fled from the city in a car.
Police said after seeing himself on TV news channels, Pathan changed his clothes and fled to Punjab. He then moved to Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh before hiding at a friend’s residence in Shamli in the state.
Uttar Pradesh police said they have arrested an alleged drug trafficker suspected to have helped Pathan escape from Delhi after the riots. Kaleem, 28, was wanted by the Narcotics Cell of Delhi police in a cannabis smuggling case.
