Bandra gathering: 1 more held; journalist out on bail

A 35-year-old tailor from Shashtri Nagar who shot and uploaded a video on social media which led to migrants gathering outside Bandra railway station on Tuesday,

A 35-year-old tailor from Shashtri Nagar who shot and uploaded a video on social media which led to migrants gathering outside Bandra railway station on Tuesday, was arrested by the Mumbai Police on Thursday.

HT Image

Rauf Shaikh, was produced in court along 10 other accused, including journalist Rahul Kulkarni. “The court granted bail to Kulkarni, a journalist from a Marathi news channel, on a personal bond of ₹15,000. However, the remaining 10, including Shaikh, were remanded in the custody of Bandra police station till April 19,” said Abhishek Trimukhe, deputy commissioner of police, zone 9.

Shaikh shared a video in instructing people to gather at Bandra and demand passage back to their home towns. Vijayalaxmi Hiremath, senior inspector at Bandra police station, said, “We identified him through the video and arrested him.”

On Wednesday evening, nine accused — Mohammad Amruddin, 35; Saif Hussein Shaikh, 36; Alam Mohammad Salim Shaikh, 28; Shamsher Ali Amir Ali Malik, 36; Helal Hakimuddin Ali, 32; Mohammad Shahid Ibrahim Shaikh, 29; Mohammad Arshad Mohammad Anvar Shaikh, 26; Altabash Chhotu Shaikh,28, and Firoz Sailchul Shaikh, 20 — were arrested from Shastri Nagar in Bandra (West) for spreading rumours about the special train.

Bandra police said that during the investigation, it came to light that the arrested accused were all migrants. They contacted between 50 to 100 each people from their respective home towns and urged them to gather near Bandra station.

On Tuesday evening, around 1,000 migrant workers had gathered outside the Bandra railway station asking the state to send them home. Considering the crowd was defying the nationwide lockdown, the Mumbai Police were forced to resort to lathi-charge to disperse the them. The event occurred hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the nationwide lockdown to May 3.

An FIR was registered on Tuesday against 700 unidentified people at Bandra police station. Two separate FIRs against Navi Mumbai resident Vinay Dubey for posting an instigating video through his social media account, and Kulkarni, were registered.