NAGPUR: The key mastermind of Nagpur riots, Fahim Khan, 38, who polled 1,000 votes against Union minister Nitin Gadkari in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, was nabbed in a predawn swoop on his Yashodhara Nagar residence on Tuesday.
A burqa seller and son of cycle repair shop owner, Khan was one of the 71 suspects arrested since violence erupted in Nagpur on Monday evening. Founder-member of Minorities Democratic Party, an affiliate of Sunni Youth Force which is active in Chhattisgarh and MP since 2019.
Khan, a college dropout who used to repair CCTVs, led a group of protesters to the Ganeshpeth police station to lodge a complaint against Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists, who burnt an effigy of Aurangzeb’s grave on Monday.
Khan’s viral video inflamed communal passions: Cops
Fahim Khan shot an alleged inflammatory video after stepping out of the police station, blaming cops for shielding right-wing activists and pinning the blame on the minority commission chairman for toeing the govt line.
The video went viral across the city, which police claimed had inflamed communal passions.
Police say Khan’s video had a polarising effect that led to the build-up of community members, who purportedly went on a rampage in Mahal. Sources stated Khan aggressively champions minority rights and engineered several protests in Nagpur against alleged objectionable comments on religion.
