Mumbai cops scan videos of Memon funeral for ‘known criminals’

Officers from the Mumbai police filmed the huge crowds that gathered at Mahim and Bada Kabrastan at Marine Lines for Yakub Memon’s funeral on Thursday, and the police will now scan the footage to find out if any known criminals were present.

Officers from the Mumbai police filmed the huge crowds that gathered at Mahim and Bada Kabrastan at Marine Lines for Yakub Memon’s funeral on Thursday, and the police will now scan the footage to find out if any known criminals were present.

Mumbai police patrolled the roads leading to AL Hussain CHS in Mahim where Yakub Memon's family live. The cops ensured that the burial of the 1993 Mumbai blasts convict went off smoothly. Memon was hanged in Nagpur Central Jail. (HT photo/Vijayanand Gupta)

In the days leading up to Memon’s execution, the police had detained 526 people with criminal records as a precaution. According to the police’s estimates, over 10,000 people attended the funeral.

A senior police official, who did not wish to be named, said it was a precautionary exercise to check who all had attended the funeral, and whether the crowd included people with criminal or underworld backgrounds. He made it clear, however, that people would be booked only if they were found to have violated the law, and not simply for attending the funeral.

On Thursday, several policemen in uniform could be seen filming the crowd at Bada Karbastan and, before that, the one at Mahim, from where Memon’s body was brought. “We have plenty of footage. We have scanned around four hours of it, and so far have spotted no one with a suspicious background,” said a police officer.

Read: Yakub Memon executed: Cops remain calm, composed, Mumbai at peace

Memon’s relatives, neighbours and friends from Mumbai, Bhiwandi and Mumbra attended his funeral at Bada Kabrastan or went to Mahim’s Bismillah Manzil, when his body was taken first.

Incidentally, Tathagata Roy, the governor of Tripura, sparked a controversy by tweeting on Friday morning, “Intelligence shd keep a tab on all (expt relatives & close friends) who assembled bfr Yakub Memon's corpse. Many are potential terrorists.”

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