Police probe videos, photos, phone data to identify rioters who ran rampage in north-east Delhi
Randhawa said on Sunday that the police were collecting dump data – information about telephone numbers which are active in a particular area at a given time – with the help of telecom companies to identify the people who were present in riot-hit areas.
The Delhi Police are looking into a range of evidence — phone calls data, videos and photos — to identify the rioters who ran rampage in north-east, killing people and torching property and vehicles. So far, 254 FIRs have been registered and over 900 people have been arrested for detained in connection with the violence that rage for four days in areas such as Jafrabad, Chand Bagh, Kardampuri, Shiv Vihar and Brijpuri, said Delhi Police spokesperson and additional commissioner of police Mandeep Singh Randhawa.
Randhawa said on Sunday that the police were collecting dump data – information about telephone numbers which are active in a particular area at a given time – with the help of telecom companies to identify the people who were present in riot-hit areas.
A senior police officer, who is part of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that is probing the communal violence, said the data is being collected from the quarters that witnessed maximum violence. “This will help us identify who all were present there. It will also help us ascertain if those involved had come from outside, as alleged by the local residents,” the officer said, wishing not to be named.
However, the police were still clueless about former Aam Aadmi Party councillor Tahir Hussain, who is alleged to be indirectly involved in the killing of Intelligence Bureau official Ankit Sharma and Shahrukh, the man who had fired multiple gunshots in Jafrabad on Monday and charged with a gun at a policeman during the second day of violence.
“We have our teams tracking them. There are possible leads and they will soon be arrested,” Randhawa said.
While Hussain went into hiding, a day after he was booked in the murder case of Ankit Sharma during violence in Chand Bagh, Shahrukh, a resident of Karawal Nagar, went underground on Monday when he caught on camera firing multiple times from a pistol amid clashes.
At least 46 people were killed and more than 350 injured --- at least 87 of them with gunshots, between last Monday and Wednesday, when northeast Delhi witnessed communal riots, one of the worst since 1984. At least 79 houses, 52 shops, five godowns, four mosques, three factories and two schools were set ablaze during the riots.
Randhawa said 41 separate cases have been registered under various sections of Arms Act and 20 under the Information Technology Act. He said the police are also going through phones of the arrested people to find evidence if they were also involved in spreading misinformation inciting violence
Randhawa said the deployment of Delhi Police’s anti-riot unit and paramilitary force continues in the affected areas and prohibitory orders under section 144 are also in place. “Our men along with the paramilitary forces are present on main roads and even in the bylanes to ensure peace. Intensified patrolling and flag marches are also being conducted regularly,” he said.