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Documents link Kanpur violence mastermind with radical groups: Cops
The police are now looking into the bank transactions of the main accused to find whether the documents recovered are related to funding.
KANPUR: The police have come across documents linking the alleged mastermind of Friday’s Kanpur violence with radical groups,senior police officials familiar with the matter said on Sunday.
These documents were found with the main accused, including Zafar Hayat Hashmi and Mohd Javed Khan, at the time of their arrest, the officials told HT.
The Kanpur violence that left several injured, broke out on Friday when President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were in the city. The police have so far booked over 1000 people (of which 36 are named accused) and arrested 24 in connection with the case.
Police officials feel that the recovery of these documents related to the Popular Front of India (PFI), the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), All India Imam Council (AIIC), Rehab India Foundation (RIF) and Campus Front of India (CFI) was an important link connecting the Kanpur violence mastermind with these organisations.
“We are now looking into the bank transactions of Hashmi and others and whether these documents are related to funding,” a police official said.
This official said that they were already looking into PFI’s connection in the Kanpur violence and investigations were focused on checking if the radical group and its offshoots were linked to the bandh call that was given in Kanpur. “PFI had given the bandh call in three states,” police said.
The bandh was called in protest against remarks made by BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma against Prophet Muhammad.
Police also claim to have found crucial information related to violence on a WhatsApp group by the name of MM Jauhar Fans Association, which was operated by Hashmi and others.
Hashmi, who had initially given the Kanpur bandh call for Friday, claimed that he had subsequently deferred the protests for June 5 after a discussion with officials who were anxious to ensure that no untoward incident happened on the day when VIPs were in the vicinity.
However, police said investigations and activity on the MM Jauhar Fans Association WhatsApp group revealed that Hashmi was “encouraging the bandh.”
“Several members of this WhatsApp group shared videos of shops that were shut down and the violence that followed,” police officials said.
“The nature of conversation on this group changed after Hashmi’s name started doing the rounds after the violence,” they added.
Police officials said as per the call detail records (CD-R), Hashmi was at Yatimkahan, mere 20 metres away from Parade, from where the violence erupted. The location of Javed Khan, who ran a YouTube channel from Lucknow, was between the violence-hit Dada Miyan, Nai Sarak and Yatimkhana, said the officials.
In his brief interrogation, Hashmi has named six other people who were more of back-room operators. “The police teams are gathering evidence against these people and they will be questioned on the basis of that,” commissioner of police Vijay Singh Meena said.
