KOLKATA: In a pre-dawn swoop on Thursday, a Delhi police team raided a house in Tamluk, East Midnapore, and arrested Mohammad Farhid alias Neetu, a key accused in the communal riots in Delhi’s Jahangipuri area on Hanuman Jayanti. Crime branch personnel traced the accused by tracking the location of his cellphone.
Farid was hiding at his aunt’s house where he took refuge after the communal discord. He was produced in a Tamluk court and remanded to transit remand. The Delhi police team left Kolkata in a flight on Thursday evening.
Sources in the police said Farid is a history-sheeter and had been booked in six cases which include robbery, snatching and burglary.
Shortly after the incident, Farid managed to give police the slip. "He took a train and reached Howrah railway station. From there, he took a bus to reach Tamluk," said a police officer adding, "The mistake he did was he continued switching on and switching off his cellphone frequently during the course of his journey. Since we placed his cellphone number under the scanner, we could track his movement whenever he switched on his handset."
The police carried out raids at several places in west Uttar Pradesh and Farid had a narrow escape on several occasions, said the police.
Farid’s arrest comes hours after two more accused Jaffar and Babuddin were arrested. "While examining footage of multiple CCTV cameras, Jaffar was seen roaming around with the unruly crowd with a sword during the violence. Babuddin was found instigating the crowd," said another police officer.