Raza Academy president’s statement recorded

The Crime Branch had issued summons to 17 people including five speakers who had addressed the gathering from the dais.

Crime Branch sources also added that the police have got substantial leads on the identities of two persons who had desecrated the Amar Jawan memorial,during the riots.

Police said Noori was called to the police headquarters at Crawford Market on Friday and inquired about the protest,which eventually turned violent. The riots left two dead and 54 persons,including 45 police officers,injured.

“We have recorded his statement and what he had to say about the violence. We will now also record statements of the other 16 to whom we have issued summons,” said a Crime Branch officer. Sources said images of miscreants taking part in the violence were shown to Noori for his help in establishing the identities of any of them.

“We showed him the images and video grabs of miscreants which we have procured from internal and external sources. He was asked to look the images to see if he recognised any of the miscreants,” said the officer.

Noori said he told the police what had transpired during the day of the protest. “I have told them what I knew. They have noted it all down,” he said.

Sources said the Crime Branch would follow the same procedure for all persons who have been summoned.

“If they do recognise anyone,it will help us in nabbing the miscreants. Their statements will also help us know what happened both before and during the violence,” said an officer.

Man who snatched rifle from police sent to custody

Salim Allarakha Choukiya (23),who was arrested by the Mumbai Police Crime Branch on Thursday for allegedly snatching self-loading rifle (SLR) from the police during the Azad Maidan riots on August 11,was produced before the Esplanade Court on Friday and remanded in police custody till August 24.

Claiming that there was enough videographed evidence against Choukiya,the prosecution told the court that some protesters had fired SLRs in the air and that Choukiya’s role had to be probed.

However,Chaukiya’s lawyer Mahesh Vaswani claimed that Choukiya,a small time businessman,had gone to meet a police officer he was friends with at Azad Maidan police station and that he had no role to play in the riot.

“He,in fact,was informed about the riot by the officer. When Choukiya set out from the police station,he saw someone holding the rifle in his hand. Choukiya went ahead snatching it from this person and had tried handing it over to the police,” Vaswani argued in the court.

Vaswani also argued that Choukiya was wrongly identified as the person waving the SLR in photographs.

Two SLRs,150 rounds of ammunition and a service pistol of a police inspector had been looted by the mob. Police had,later,recovered the two SLRs and 29 rounds of ammunition.

Investigators are now trying to trace the protesters,featuring in the videos carrying the fire-arms,and have detained five suspected rioters with injury marks.

Two youth killed and 52,including 44 policemen,were injured when a rally called to protest alleged atrocities on Muslims in Assam and Myanmar turned violent.

The protesters went on rampage,attacking the police including a few women constables,torching media and police vehicles,smashing cameras of photo journalists and damaging buses.

A day after the riots,the police had arrested 23 persons in connection with the incident.