Stockpiling...
Hussain has been booked for murder.
Investigators said such stockpiling appeared to have been a tactic deployed by scores of households in affected areas as people anticipated trouble or were willing to stir it themselves.
The resultant violence caught law-enforcement authorities offguard, pointing to a larger intelligence failure, former officials said, to gear up for a riot in which one of the victims was, tragically, an Intelligence Bureau officer. Prakash Singh, former director general of Uttar Pradesh police, on whose recommendations the Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment on police reforms, said, “It requires no intelligence to gauge the build-up in the area in the run-up to the riot. You will have to be blind not to act. Police could have carried all-night searches and detained all those from whose homes stones were found. The police are equally culpable of the deaths that have happened.”
Singh, who also served as director general of Assam police, said it is difficult to believe that a force of 90,000 cannot stop a riot in north-east Delhi.
“You need don’t instructions from government to act or not act. Even a sub-inspector can act on such a situation. That man Shahrukh pointing a pistol at the police officer showed the absence of the fear or respect for the law.”
The police have registered 148 cases and arrested or detained over 600 people in north-east Delhi, as the area stuttered towards normalcy while tension in some pockets still hung in the air.
Two special investigation teams (SITS), formed on Thursday to probe the national capital’s worst communal violence in at least three decades, visited the riot-ravaged areas, hunting down people who have been linked to the rampage.
Delhi Police, counting the losses, will follow the Uttar Pradesh model and make arsonists pay for the damage caused to public and private properties, two officials familiar with the move said.
Police are probing allegations that countrymade pistols were stocked by petty criminals and handed over to alleged outsiders who ran amok during the riot that started off as clashes between those supporting and protesting the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
HT could not independently verify these reports. Special commissioner of police (law and order) SN Shrivastava said: “I have not come across any such numbers regarding the bullets fired, recovery of empty cartridges, or stocking of firearms by criminals.”
The number of those arrested or detained is likely to increase because raids are being conducted in Delhi and adjoining states, police spokesperson Mandeep Singh Randhawa said at a press briefing.
People stepped out of homes and shops were opened on Friday. Civic workers swept the streets littered with broken glasses and stones. But tension was palpable in some areas.
A 50-year-old Muslim scrap dealer was killed in the Shiv Vihar area early on Friday, his son said, though the local police did not confirm this. Even Randhawa said there was no report of fresh violence in the area.
“Some incidents of violence are being reported continuously. We have not heard of any death but residents are still in rage,” Deewan Singh, a 40-year-old resident of Shiv Vihar, said.
Friday prayers at mosques in the area — the first since the riot — passed off peacefully, local peace committee members said. Earlier in the day, mosques appealed for peace and harmony.
HT visited 10 mosques; five of them were vandalised. People who used to visit the mosques that were damaged visited neighbouring areas under police and paramilitary watch. There was heavy presence of security personnel outside empty mosques as well.
Delhi Police also initiated an “outreach programme”, and their officials met imams and maulvis of mosques. Residents alleged that on Sunday evening — hours after the first stones were thrown — at least 10 trucks carrying men with backpacks parked on a service lane in Bhajanpura.
“These people did not look like labourers. All were young men, between 20 and 30 years. Who knows what they were carrying in their backpacks? It could be stones, it could be weapons,” Om Veer, a 42-year-old shopowner, said.
At his press briefing, Randhawa said of the 148 first information reports (FIRS) filed so far, 25 cases were under the Arms Act. The others were related to murder, attempt to murder, rioting, attacking security personnel, damaging public and other offences. He said AAP councillor Tahir Hussain was still at large.
A police team visited the house of a man identified as Shahrukh. On Monday, he was caught on camera approaching a policeman while pointing a pistol at him, turning to another direction in the nick of time and then firing a few rounds in the air. He and his family members have absconded. tion for Muslims in education, the quota will be 79% in Maharashtra.
Constitutional experts have expressed doubt over the sustainability of the legislation when it is introduced in Maharashtra, especially since “similar reservations have been struck down by the courts in the country for various reasons earlier”.
Shreehari Aney, former advocate-general, cited the Champakam Dorairajan verus state of Madras case of the 1960s, where a reservation for Brahmins by the then Madras was struck down by the court. He said, “It is not that it cannot be done. It can be done. But this is a very complicated issue. Religious reservation is quite different from backwardness reservation. So, in order to give it to a particular religion, there would be need to show in terms of Article 15 of the constitution that the religion deserves protection in matters of education.”
Aney explained that in such a case, the state will have to explain the need on basis of fool-proof data. Aney said, “I don’t know if Mr Malik has access to this kind of data. If he does not have it, then this reservation can be challenged successfully.”
Regarding the total reservation in Maharashtra touching 79%, Aney said, “This will definitely be another basis for challenging the law in court.” He added, “There are two types of reservations, a vertical reservation is given across classes and castes, and adds to the overall reservation percentage in the state. However, a horizontal reservation comes within another reservation’s percentage. This is likely to be a vertical reservation and may not stand when legally challenged.”
Another legal expert, advocate Uday Warunjikar, said the announcement was made without doing proper homework. He said, “In India there are different such examples, where the state tried to introduce special reservation for Muslims. Most of these examples have landed into legal trouble, including in Andra Pradesh, where 5% was introduced, but struck down by the court.” “The government needs proper data to prove a certain religious community is in dire need of such a reservation. Without the data, it will be very difficult to sustain the legislation.”
On Friday, former chief minister and leader of Opposition in the legislative Assembly Devendra Fadnavis reiterated his party’s stance, while opposing Malik’s announcement.
“Dr BR Ambedkar’s constitution does not approve the reservation on the basis of religion. The reservation to Muslims will affect the reservation granted to OBC and Maratha communities in the state,” he said. Fadnavis said that people of the state should know why the Sena has compromised on its ideology and being dragged with the other two ruling parties.
Earlier in the council, Malik was urged in the council to bring a bill to the effect and pass it before June 2020, as school admissions take place around this time. Husnabanu Khalife, Congress MLC, said, “If the law is in place before June, Muslims will benefit from it during the school admissions of their children this year itself.”
Ranpise said, “I am already making this demand. I urge the state to bring an ordinance to the effect to speed the process.” Malik, in turn, clarified, “An ordinance cannot be introduced when the legislature is in session. The government will bring a bill to the effect as soon as possible.”
“We will inspect if it is possible to give a reservation based on religion and then only will a decision be taken,” Malik said in response to BJP MLC Vijay Girkar’s remarks that reservations cannot be given on the basis of religion as per the Constitution.
Malik also defended the MVA and said, “Everyone is looking at Sena in the house. Let me assure you, we have Sena’s support. As it’s election promises to the people of Maharashtra hold, Sena has assured that all social problems faced by backward classes, castes, and communities will be resolved and these people will be given justice. When BJP was in alliance with Sena and was opposing this, Sena was upholding its value.”
Analysts have called the announcement a political move.
Analyst Hemant Desai said, “NCP wants to reach out to Muslim voters now as Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi’s (VBA) Prakash Ambedkar took their votes and AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-ittehadul-muslameen) is trying to expand in Maharashtra. Congress’s position in terms of support base is bad at present. NCP chief Sharad Pawar knows this. Sena, on the other hand, is doing a balancing act and softening its stance on many issues.”