UP govt plans hoardings of Kanpur violence accused
As many as 50 hoardings with photographs of those who allegedly participated in the June 3 violence will be put up in several areas for identification and subsequent arrests, informed police commissioner Vijay Singh Meena.
As many as 50 hoardings with photographs of those who allegedly took part in the June 3 violence in Kanpur will be put up in several areas for identification and subsequent arrests, police commissioner Vijay Singh Meena said on Sunday.
Police have gathered images of the alleged accused through several videos of the incident, including those captured on CCTV, and will soon put them up in hoardings under six police stations of Kanpur Nagar for identification, Meena said.
“We are in the process of collating the images and they will be displayed everywhere. We want to send out a strong message. These rioters will be identified and their properties will be seized,” Meena said.
If required, more hoardings with photographs of such accused will be put up in other parts of the city, police officials familiar with the matter said.
It will be for the third time in Kanpur when hoardings with photographs of those accused of violence would be put up at important locations. Such hoardings were first put up in Sisamau in 2015, following the violence during a “Paiki” procession.
A similar move was also made during the protests against the then Citizenship Amendment Act in December 2019.
In March 2020, Allahabad high court had directed the district magistrate and police commissioner to remove the hoardings. The court observed that the state’s action amounted to “violation of Article 21 of Constitution” and “amounts to unwarranted interference in the privacy of people”.
Subsequently, the Supreme Court had questioned the Uttar Pradesh government for putting on display the personal details of alleged protesters to “name and shame them”. The top court had asked the state government under which it had publicly pasted the posters of the protesters.
Highlighting the issue of privacy, Justice UU Lalit said that while the court agrees there should not be unruly behaviour, there must be some law which backs the action of putting up the hoardings. “In this case, there is no backing of law,” Justice Lalit had said.
At least 40 people, including 20 police personnel, were injured in Friday’s clashes, in Pared, Nai Sadak and Yateemkhana areas, which erupted after some people called for closure of shops as part of protest over alleged objectionable remarks made against Prophet Mohammad and Islam by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Nupur Sharma. Sharma was suspended by the party on Sunday.
Tension erupted as protesters called for a bandh and forced closure of shops owned by Hindus in Pared locality of the district. The violence soon spilled to different localities, including Beconganj, Anwarganj and Moolgunj, as protesters pelted stones, fired shots and lobbed petrol bombs at police who in return used batons to disperse the mob, officials had earlier said.
With five more arrests on Sunday, 29 people have been held so far and over 1,000 people (of which 36 are named accused) have been booked in connection with the violence. Among those arrested is Hayat Zafar Hashmi, chief of Maulana Mohammed Ali Jauhar Fans Association, a local social group.
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Hashmi is suspected to be the mastermind of the violence and was arrested from Hazratganj area of Lucknow on Saturday. Hashmi, along with Mohd Javed Khan, Mohd Rahil and Mohd Sufiyan, also linked with the association, are believed to be the key conspirators in the case, police said. Khan, Rahil and Sufiyan were also arrested on Saturday.
All the four accused, who are lodged in Kanpur district jail, were sent to judicial custody for 14 days on Sunday. Commissioner Meena on Saturday had said that the accused will be booked under the stringent National Security Act and the Gangster Act.
Also Read | Kanpur violence: Four accused remanded in 14-day judicial custody
Police are considering seizing or demolishing properties of the people involved in the violence, additional director general (law and order) Prashant Kumar had said.
Several documents related to the Popular Front of India and its three offshoots were found on Hashmi and Khan, according to two officers who are part of the ongoing investigation. The documents were related to the Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), political front of PFI, All India Imams Council (AIIC), Rehab India Foundation (RIF) and Campus Front of India (CFI), the officers said.
Also Read | Documents link Kanpur violence mastermind with radical groups: Cops
“We are looking at bank transactions of Hashmi and others as these documents are related to funding,” one of the officers said, seeking anonymity.
Police are already probing the role of PFI in the Kanpur violence and trying to ascertain if the group was linked to the call for a bandh in the city. The PFI, according to police, had given bandh calls in three states, including West Bengal and Meghalaya.
Some crucial information pertaining to the violence were also found on a WhatsApp group of which Hashmi was a part of, the officer said.
While Hashmi had withdrawn the call for bandh on June 3 and deferred it to June 5 after talks with police on June 2, the content available on the WhatsApp group suggested he was encouraging the bandh on Friday, the officer said. HT has seen the WhatsApp messages.
During questioning, Hashmi named six others who were involved in the violence. Efforts are underway to gather evidence against these six people following which they will be called for questioning, police commissioner Meena said.
Hashmi’s family has claimed he is innocent and had no role in the violence.
Also Read | Kanpur violence: Innocents held, lament kin
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party district unit secretary Nizam Quraishi is among 36 named accused in the case. Quraishi is the head of Jamiatul Quraishi, a body that represents the Quraishi community in Kanpur.
Quraishi was expelled from the party on Sunday after purported videos showed him in Nai Sadak area on Sunday.
“Quraishi is yet to be arrested. He is absconding and efforts are underway to trace him,” the second officer said.
The SP distanced itself from Quraishi’s alleged role in the case. “All his appeals, to my knowledge, were made under the banner of Jamiatul Quraishi,” district unit president Dr Imran Idris said.
Three first information reports have been filed in connection with the violence under various sections of Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 147 (punishment for rioting), 307 (attempt to murder), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 336 (act endangering life), 353 (criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 427 (mischief causing damage) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace).
