SAHARANPUR RIOT MAIN ACCUSED ARRESTED
MEERUT: The Saharanpur police on Wednesday arrested the main accused in the recent riots Moharram Ali alias Pappu from the city area.
Five of his aides had also been arrested and booked under different sections of IPS. “We were continuously hunting for him and finally nabbed him from the city area on Wednesday,” said Rajesh Pandey, SSP Saharanpur, adding, “during interrogation he has given some vital leads, like who were behind the violence and how it was started, and we are further working on it to reach others involved.”
Moharram Ali was allegedly responsible for the Saturday violence, which claimed lives of three persons and left 33 injured, over a piece of land. The rioters had torched many shops and vehicles after which curfew was imposed in six police station areas.
Moarram had disputed the land which was under possession of Guru Singh Sabha since 1998 and tried to create hurdles over construction of Gurudwara on the said land. The controversy eventually led to a clash on Saturday and Moharram allegedly instigated the crowed which went on a rampage.
The officials and members of Guru Singh Sabha have been demanding for arrest of Moharram, an ex councilor of Nagar Nigam with a criminal record, for the past three days. A delegation of BJP MLAs and leaders also visited the town on Wednesday and took a round of the violence affected areas.
MEERUT: A six-member delegation of Bharatiya Janata Party’s fact-finding committee visited the violence-hit area of Saharanpur city on Wednesday afternoon. The committee will submit its report to the party’s state chief for further action. BJP MLAs Suresh Rana, Lokendra Singh Chauhan, Ravindra Bhadana, former MLA Amit Agarwal, former member of minority cell SP-Singh and vice president of the party`s state minority cell Sukhwinder Singh Bedi went around the violence-hit area and interacted with locals to collect facts about the clashes. They also called on th4e divisional commis- sioner to discuss problems of the people in the riot-hit area. “The committee will submit its report to state BJP chief Dr Laxmikant Bajpai for further action”, said Alok Sisaudia, the party’s west UP media in-charge.
Meanwhile, a delegation of the ruling Samajwadi Party, led by state minister Rajendra Ran and Sanjay Garg, former minister and party`s candidate from Saharanpur city in the forthcoming state assembly bye-election, called on the officials of Guru Singh Sabha. The Sikhs demanded stern action against rioters, an intensive search operation to confiscate illegal weapons used by the rioters , compensation to those who had suffered loss in the violence and construction of the gurudwara . Later, talking to the media, the Sikh community repeated its demands and declared that all three educational institutes ( colleges of intermediate level) which were being run by the Sabha would remain closed till the Sikhs got justice.
People came out and shops opened during the five-hour relaxation in curfew and the city seemed to be limping back to normalcy. Unconfirmed sources said police had rounded up the main culprit of the incident Moharram Ali Pappu.