E-Paper
10 more held over Agnipath violence in Secunderabad
According to a senior police official dealing with the case, five of the accused were acting as admins for different WhatsApp groups, who circulated the messages asking the army job aspirants to indulge in violence, including attacks and arson of railway bogeys in Secunderabad railway station.
The Hyderabad police on Wednesday arrested 10 more youngsters allegedly involved in last Friday’s violence at Secunderabad railway station in protest against Agnipath model for the short-term induction of soldiers in the military, officials said..
The arrested were produced before the railway court in Bhoiguda after conducting their medical examination at Gandhi government hospital. The court remanded them to judicial custody at Chanchalguda prison for 14 days, the officials added.
On Sunday, the railways police had arrested 46 people and remanded them to judicial custody. With the latest arrests, the total number of arrests made in the Secunderabad railway station violence case has gone up to 56.
According to a senior police official dealing with the case, five of the accused were acting as admins for different WhatsApp groups, who circulated the messages asking the army job aspirants to indulge in violence, including attacks and arson of railway bogeys in Secunderabad railway station to attract the attention of the central government.
“One of the youths arrested today – Rathod Pruthviraj (23) from Sonapur Village of Adilabad district, was named as Accused No. 2 (A-1), as he was found to have played a key role in the arson in the railway station, along with Madhusudhan (A-1) who was arrested on Sunday,” the police official said.
A video seized by the police from the mobile phones of the accused, that went viral in the social media on Wednesday, showed Pruthviraj stuffing some wooden pieces in the gaps of the berth and setting them afire by lighting a match stick.
“Investigations revealed that Pruthiviraj asked his friends to shoot the video while he was setting fire to the coach. We could identify him with the help of the video, which was circulated in the WhatsApp groups of the army job aspirants,” the official said.
The police also seized another video in which Pruthviraj and others were seen damaging the doors and windows of the train coaches and breaking the glass panes with sticks. “The videos will provide enough evidence to prove their crime in the court,” the police official said.
According to the remand report submitted by the police in the court (which was seen by HT), the accused had confessed that while they were in the mob, which attacked the railway station.
“Some of the students admitted that promoter of Sai Defence Academy one Avula Subba Rao and his manager Shiva had supported them to indulge in violence and provided the logistics,” the remand report said.
It said all the accused were job aspirants of army recruitments and had attended physical and medical tests and they were deprived of their job opportunities due to launch of the Agnipath programme introduced by the Central government.
“These job aspirants formed or joined in WhatsApp groups like Railway Station Block, Indian Army Group, Hakimpet Army Soldiers group, Chalo Secunderabad ARO 3 group, Army GD 2021 March rally group, CEE Soldiers group etc, in which they shared their views for conducting rioting at Secunderabad Railway Station against the Agnipath scheme,” the report said.
The organizers of these groups conspired with one other and with some of the defence training academies and planned the violent agitation. Accordingly, they executed their plan, the police said in the remand report.
