NAGPUR: Bashir Qureshi points at the broken door of his house at Mominpura. “The policemen simply barged inside by breaking the door open. We were stunned. They were hunting for suspects of Monday’s rioting. I begged, saying that my brother is a cancer patient. They relented only after seeing a large cut due to the surgery on his face,” he says.
However, not all were lucky to be spared. Hunting for miscreants, policemen knocked on doors randomly, picking up youths who they believed may have created ruckus, said the locals.
Former chairman of bar council of Maharashtra and Goa Asif Qureshi, who lives in Bhaldarpura, another locality where cops came after rioters, said many innocents from the area were detained. He is already representing them in court. The miscreants were outsiders but the police targeted the locals, he alleged. One of them is a school teacher and his four relatives too were picked up, he said.
A sixty-two-year-old businessman was picked up merely because a group of rioters had climbed up the stairs of his home. He was sleeping and may have left the gate open by mistake, said a former corporator, requesting not to be named. Youths were picked up simply without any explanation, he said. The residents also showed the clip of youths being dragged away by the police.
On account of Ramzan, when many offer late-night Taravi prayers, people were hanging out at their homes in Mominpura and nearby, as the riots continued at Mahal and then Hansapuri. The angry cops rushed inside looking for suspects, said the locals.
The locals said the policemen also went on a rampage, damaging vehicles. TOI came across nearly a dozen vehicles with windscreens smashed at Bhaldarpura.
“Another resident showed a broken door which was later covered with cardboard patches. They came inside and only left after we begged that none of us was there at Mahal or Hansapuri,” said a local requesting anonymity.
“We shivered inside as the policemen banged our doors, spewing foul language. It’s Ramzan time, and we cannot even repeat what they were saying,” said a resident at Mominpura.
Those who had strong doors were spared, said another. The locals also pointed out the broken CCTV cameras near the shops. “They first smashed the cameras so that there is no evidence,” said a local.
“Why allow a protest in such a sensitive area? The VHP rally should have been held at Samvidhan Square instead. It would have avoided the riots,” a woman shouted from her balcony, holding up shattered pieces of a vehicle mirror.
A senior police officer in Ganeshpeth station said the victims can approach them with videos or other evidence. If true, the police will take action against its officials, he said.
