Two more people have been arrested in connection with the August 11 violence at Mumbai's Azad Maidan, taking the total number of people in police custody to 50. The two arrested have been accused of torching an OB van and hitting a police constable with slippers.
Mumbai Police has also set up a team of lady police officials including two officers to speak to the women constables who were on duty at Azad Maidan on August 11, and record their evidence for Section 354 (molestation). There are no video clips of the molestation, but the women constables would be asked to identify the molesters, said Himanshu Roy, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime).
Roy added that police are in the process identifying the molesters and he is also in touch with the Thane police for recovery of weapons and cartridges used and snatched from the police during the violence.
Police had on Thursday arrested five more alleged rioters in connection with the violence. The five were apprehended from the city after they were seen in the CCTV footages indulging in violence at Azad Maidan.
During the last three days, 19 people were arrested from various parts of the city, police said, adding that two of them, identified as Niyazuddin Shaikh (28) and Mohammed Hussain Ansari (21), were produced before a metropolitan magistrate court on Wednesday which remanded them in police custody till August 28.
Two youths were killed and 52, including 44 policemen, injured on August 11 when a rally called to protest alleged atrocities on Muslims in Assam and Myanmar turned violent.
The protesters went on a rampage, attacking police, including some women constables, torching media and police vehicles, smashing cameras of photo journalists and damaging buses.