KOLKATA/NEW DELHI: In an important development, Delhi Police has arrested a key accused in the Jahangirpuri violence case from Bengal on Thursday, who is also one of the key accused along with Mohammad Ansar, who was already under custody.
“We have arrested Mohammad Farid (the arrested accused) from Bengal,” a Delhi Police official, told The New Indian. Farid was arrested from his aunt’s place in Tamluk village in Bengal’s East Medinipur district.
The official said that a team from Special Cell was following the movement of Farid aka Neetu, who is an active bad character of Jahangirpuri and has been previously involved in more than six cases of robberies. The team was chasing Farid for the last two weeks and raided a number of hideouts in Uttar Pradesh West and West Bengal, the official said.
“On some of the occasions, he narrowly escaped from the clusters but the team did not lose patience and kept on tracking him and remained stationed in West Bengal. Finally today, the tedious efforts of the team brought fruitful results and the desperate Farid was located and apprehended from East Medinipur district,” he added.
Earlier in the day, the crime branch of Delhi Police arrested two more accused in connection with the case. The arrested accused have been identified as Jafar and Babuddin.
The arrests came days after the police arrested Ansar, one of the main accused in the Jahangirpuri violence case. Besides Ansar, the police had also arrested 20 people in connection with the case.
Stone-pelting and arson were reported in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri during Hanuman Jayanti Shobha Yatra on April 16, leaving nine persons including seven policemen injured.
The Delhi Police has already charged most of the accused including another key accused Ansar under the stringent National Security Act (NSA) in the violence case.
Last week, Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana had written to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) urging it to probe the money laundering charges against Ansar.
Following the Delhi Police’s request, the ED initiated its probe under the sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Ansar.
Ansar was arrested by the Delhi Police on April 17 and sent to police custody by a court. Police in its remand copy stated that Ansar, along with his four-five companions reached near the mosque and allegedly started the ruckus, which acted as a trigger point for clashes between the two communities.
As per Delhi Police officials, Ansar is a known history-sheeter of the area and has a record of his criminal history since 2007. The source said that Ansar is said to be running a bootlegging business and gambling racket in the area and has been taken into preventive custody a number of times in the past.