Delhi riots: Three arrested in five murders

New Delhi: Three were arrested and at least three others have been apprehended and are being questioned in connection with five separate murders that took place

New Delhi: Three were arrested and at least three others have been apprehended and are being questioned in connection with five separate murders that took place during the communal riots in north-east Delhi last month, the Delhi Police said on Monday.

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Two others, including owner of a private school in Shiv Vihar, have also been arrested in riots-related cases.

One of them, identified as Lokesh Kumar Solanki, was allegedly involved in four murders that took place on Tahirpur Puliya (culvert), which comes under the Gokalpuri police station limits, between February 24 and 25, when the violence was at its peak and ravaged several parts of north-east Delhi. All the four dead persons belonged to the same community. The victim in the fifth murder case was from a different community, the police said.

A police officer said that in the fifth murder case, two men, identified as Arif and Abid Qureshi, were arrested for allegedly killing Rahul Solanki during the riots, a case regarding which was registered at the Dayalpur police station.

Shah Alam, the brother of suspended Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) councillor Tahir Hussain, already arrested in connection with Intelligence Bureau (IB) staffer Ankit Sharma’s murder case, has also been taken into custody for questioning.

So far, 53 people were killed and more than 400 injured in the violence. A total of 702 cases related to the riots were registered till Sunday while 2,387 persons have either been detained or arrested in these cases. Two special investigation teams (SITs) of crime branch are probing the riots-related cases.

An officer associated with the SITs said that four persons were killed on Tahirpur Puliya allegedly by a violent mob that had assembled there, attacking people from the other community. The four were either stabbed or hacked to death on the culvert, the officer said.

Four separate cases of rioting, murder, destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy were registered after the bodies of the four persons were found. However, the police did not specify the gender and age of those killed. It was also unclear whether the bodies were found on the culvert or were recovered from the drain underneath.

In a statement issued on Monday, the Delhi Police said that on March 5, the four cases were transferred to one of the SITs. During the investigation, through manual and technical investigation, it emerged that a group of persons were involved in the cases, the police said.

“On the basis of evidence collected, one Lokesh Kumar Solanki was apprehended, interrogated and then arrested in the cases for his involvement. He disclosed details about others involved in the crime. All out efforts are being made to apprehend the remaining accused,” the police said in its statement.

Police said Lokesh’s interrogation led to the nabbing of at least three more people, who are being questioned in the murder cases. “We are collecting evidence against them as well. They would be arrested as soon as we gather concrete evidence,” an investigator said on the condition of anonymity.

Two days ago, the SIT had arrested 27-year-old Mohammad Shahnawaz in connection with the murder of a sweets shop’s waiter, Dilbar Negi, whose charred body, with his arms severed, was found in the shop.