Delhi riots: Received 4,000 distress calls day Trump arrived, probing role of people from UP's Deoband area, police tells MHA in report

New Delhi: Delhi Police has told the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) that its control room received 4,000 distress calls from riot-hit North East Delhi district, on the day US president Donald Trump landed in Ahmedabad. These calls made by the residents were about large gathering of pro-CAA and anti-CAA groups and incidents of stone-pelting, arson, firing and clashes with police teams on the ground. [caption id=“attachment_8085961” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Delhi Police at the site of violence in northeast Delhi. PTI[/caption] Fifty-three people lost their lives in the communal violence last month while thousands were injured. Significantly, the Delhi Police has informed the MHA that they are probing the role of people who came in large number from Deoband in western Uttar Pradesh, few days before the violence and allegedly stayed in Mustafa Bad and other areas of North East Delhi. The linkage between outsiders and active criminals of all police stations of the northeast Delhi districts is being investigated to unearth the larger conspiracy. On 25 February, the day US president Donald Trump was holding a meeting in the National Capital, 44 localities reported large-scale arson, firing and clashes with the police. The report reveals that large scale riots were witnessed across 10 police stations of the northeast Delhi districts. The police teams investigating the violence have collected case files from five police stations — Khajuri Khas, Karawal Nagar, Sonia Vihar, Welcome and Jaffrabad. “Collected all postmortem report and DNA profile as well as finger prints of all unknown dead bodies. Examining all injured persons, recording their statements. Examining all witnesses in the cases so that no aspect is left out. CCTV footage of all liquor shops in the area have been analysed. Bad characters of all police station of North East Delhi have been rounded up and are being examined giving special focus on their presence/role during riot. Collected clips from social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok uploads and gathering details of Whatsapp groups to retrieve chats. Analysing phone records of criminals and suspects in the riot-hit areas," the Delhi Police has told the MHA. Union Home Minister Amit Shah had told the Parliament earlier this week that 60 social media accounts, which were created on 22 February and closed down on 26 February were used to incite hate in Delhi violence. He had informed the Rajya Sabha that special public prosecutors have been appointed for each riot-hit police station to coordinate with the police for swift justice. A dedicated team headed by senior police officer has been tasked to analyse suspected social media account holders and CCTV footage and videos filmed by locals. A total 1,922 rioters have been identified by the police. Of these, 336 belongs to Uttar Pradesh. Besides, Delhi police has told the MHA that they have collected data from the Jamia area and near Jama Masjid where riots happened during earlier protests against CAA, so that those elements who were present on all these locations during the riots in these areas could be identified. “Efforts are on to identify miscreants who were part of the larger conspiracy having their presence at both Jamia area and in the area of northeast districts during respective riots," Delhi Police report informed the MHA.