Northeast Delhi violence: Week later, 369 FIRs but just 33 rioting arrests

Mangalore Today News Network

Delhi, Mar 03, 2020: A week after riots broke out in several areas of Northeast Delhi, 369 FIRs have so far been lodged in connection with the violence and 33 people have been arrested for rioting, as per data accessed by The Indian Express. However, the Crime Branch’s special investigation team (SIT) is yet to arrest riot conspirators, people on charges of murder, or nab those who attacked DCP (Shahdara) Amit Sharma, Yahoo reported.

“We detained 146 people under Section 107/ 151/107/150 CrPC, two under Section 110 G CrPC and 1,060 under Section 65 of Delhi Police Act. Under all these sections, people will be released after a warning. Around 44 cases have been filed under the Arms Act and 46 people arrested on these charges. 40 country made pistols, 53 cartridges have been recovered from them. We have also registered 21 FIRs for spreading hate messages,” said a source.

Sources told The Indian Express that officers have been unable to find eyewitnesses to the murders. Locals did not disclose the identity of any attacker and pointed to unidentified groups, said sources.

Apart from the Crime Branch SIT, several inspectors, who have a good intelligence network among local criminal gangs and have earlier worked in the Northeast district, have also been roped in. “A letter has been sent by SIT officials to Delhi Police chief S N Shrivastava, requesting to transfer all murder cases to them and riot cases to district police,” said police sources.

Data also shows that among the 47 who died, 28 were from the 21-30 years age group; nine were aged between 31-40; three were from the 41-60 years age group; two were above 60 years; and one is from the 18-20 age group. “472 MLCs (medico-legal cases) were prepared — eight are of women who received blunt injuries; 97 received gunshot injuries,” said an officer.

Of the 46 murder cases registered, 11 each are at Dayalpur and Karawal Nagar police stations; 9 cases at Gokulpuri; four cases at Bhajanpura; three each at Welcome and Jafrabad; two cases each at Khajuri Khas and Jyoti Nagar; and one at New Usmanpur.

“Police found that two men allegedly set DCP Amit Sharma’s car on fire by throwing petrol bombs at 3.49 pm on February 24. Police are yet to identify an attacker. Several teams are also conducting raids in Western UP to nab Shahrukh Khan, who allegedly fired eight rounds at Maujpur in front of a policeman,” said a senior officer.