Delhi demolition violence: Probe focuses on WhatsApp messages, families of arrested say they’re innocent

The message was allegedly posted in two WhatsApp groups of Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) in the area, each with 300-400 members, the sources said.

More than a dozen teams of the Delhi Police, including the Special Staff, Crime Branch, and Special Cell, are investigating whether there was a deeper conspiracy to create a law-and-order situation on Tuesday night.

Around 70 people are believed to have been involved in the stone-throwing incidents. Besides the five who have been arrested, police are learnt to have identified another dozen individuals using CCTV footage, videos, and facial recognition technology.

Police are also investigating the possible role of outsiders, including political functionaries, in instigating the violence, a senior officer said.

The family of Mohammad Areeb, another of those who have been arrested, claimed that he had no connection with the violence. A member of the family told The Indian Express that they were searching for him in the early hours of Wednesday when they learned of his arrest.

“Areeb runs a café near Jama Masjid, and was returning home around 2.30 am. Shops in our area remain open till 4 am. He was supposed to pick up some milk and groceries on the way back,” the family member said. According to this individual, Areeb had called at 2.45 am and 2.50 am to say he was on his way, but had “disappeared” after that.

The family of brothers Mohammad Kashif and Mohammad Kaif said they had been picked up from near their home in Gali Gariyan in Turkman Gate.

“The boys had gone out to get medicine for their mother because she was coughing. Both boys are well educated and employed. They have been running the family since their father died 13 years ago,” a member of the family who gave his name as Aadib, said.

Police officers said Kaif is preparing for chartered accountancy exams, and his elder brother Kashif works at Safdarjung Hospital.

In Chandni Mahal, the family of Sameer, who works in a photo framing shop in Daryaganj, said police had taken him away from his home.

“He (Sameer) had returned from a wedding at 11.30 pm and gone to bed,” his sister said. “Around 2.30 am, the police came and pulled him out of bed and took him away,” she said.

Sameer’s “only mistake”, she said, was that he had “shared a video asking people to gather near the mosque”.