There was heavy police bandobast in the Chitnis Park area of Nagpur on Wednesday (March 19) after clashes erupted between two communities. Photo: PTI
Fahim Khan, alleged mastermind of Nagpur violence held: Maharashtra police
Fahim Shamim Khan, a leader of the Minorities Democratic Party (MDP), was arrested a few hours after his name was included in a First Information Report
The Nagpur police on Wednesday (March 19) arrested Fahim Shamim Khan, a leader of Minorities Democratic Party (MDP), accusing him of being the key orchestrator behind the violent clashes that erupted between two communities in the city.
According to India Today, Fahim was arrested a few hours after his name was included in a First Information Report (FIR) filed at the Ganeshpeth Police Station.
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Alleged video
The police had released Fahim’s photo earlier on Wednesday, and a video surfaced of him allegedly making an inflammatory speech just before the violence was unleashed on Monday.
Fahim has been remanded to police custody till March 21. The 38-year-old is the Nagpur president of MDP. He had contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from the Nagpur constituency as an MDP candidate, and lost to union minister Nitin Gadkari of the BJP by a huge margin.
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Senior police officials said that their preliminary investigations and the video of Fahim’s speech allegedly indicate that his inflammatory speech triggered the violence in the city on Monday.
The rumour
What triggered the clashes in Nagpur’s Chitnis Park area was a rumour that went around that the holy book of a community had been desecrated by Bajrang Dal activists who were protesting for the removal of Aurangzeb’s tomb in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. A mob soon gathered and pelted stones at the police, injuring 34 security personnel.
A complaint was lodged against the Bajrang Dal protesters after the agitation, accusing them of hurting the religious sentiments of a community, and an FIR was registered. However, no arrests seemed to have been made till now.
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A curfew is in place in several sensitive locations of Nagpur, but a senior police official said the situation is under control. An official told PTI that 2,000 armed police personnel have been deployed in various sensitive areas of the city.