Hyderabad: The Telangana State police on Tuesday made it clear that the right-wing organization Hindu Vahini had triggered the March 7 communal riots in Bhainsa town, Nirmal district. The clashes were instigated by two men named Thota Mahesh and Dattu Patel, according to the cops.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Y Nagi Reddy, inspector general of police (north zone), said that Mahesh and Dattu were travelling on their bike, and had hit a youth named Rizwan from behind while he was walking with two of his friends, namely Sameer and Minaj. This had transpired in Zulfiquar Gully, near the Zulfiquar mosque.
This minor incident was turned into a communal flare-up by the activists of the Hindu Vahini, including its district president Santosh and Thota Vijay (sitting counsellor of Ward No 8 of Bhainsa town and an ex-Hindu Vahini president).
Later, members of two communities indulged in stone pelting and arson in Bhainsa, as both sides called-on more and more people to fight. The communal conflagration resulted in the registration of 26 cases, with 38 accused, including four children, from both the communities getting arrested and remanded to judicial custody.
Among the arrested persons, the majority of them belong to the Hindu Vahini organization. “The Telangana police is impartial and the investigation is based on technical evidence, there is no truth behind allegations of police’s biased attitude,” said Nagi Reddy.
The IGP’s statement and police investigation are important, as the state’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) unit has alleged that the police was only arresting Hindu youth, and targeting them. The saffron party has been claiming that the police is biased in its investigation.
In fact, BJP state president Bandi Sanjay, in a letter to Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundararajan on March 15, alleged in his letter that “infiltrators” from Maharashtra, especially Muslims, were entering Telangana or Bhainsa and causing trouble.
During the stone pelting that transpired on March 7 in Bhainsa, nine civilians and three police officers were injured. Apart from that four houses, 13 shops, four autos, six four-wheelers and five two-wheelers were set ablaze by the miscreants as well.
Special teams were formed for the investigation into the cases that were registered, to identify and apprehend the accused, analyze the CDRs and CCTV footages.
The accused involved in cases were identified based on CCTV footages that were installed in Bhainsa, and also from CCTVs that were installed and geo-tagged as part of the ‘Nenusaitham’ programme.