FIR against Sambhal mosque panel chief has sections with provision for life in jail

Zia ur Rehman Barq, the Samajwadi Party MP from Sambhal, and Sohail Iqbal, the son of six-time SP MLA Iqbal Mehmood, who is also the deputy leader of the party in the UP Assembly, have also been booked under the same sections.

Barq, Iqbal and others were named in the FIR lodged by a policeman after the November 24 violence in the wake of a court-ordered survey of the mosque whether a temple existed there.

Zafar Ali is the first member of the mosque committee arrested for the violence after being interrogated for four hours at the Sambhal Kotwali police station on Sunday. He was produced in a Chandausi court which sent him to remand for two days.

“I have been falsely implicated. I did not incite people for the violence on November 24. I have been arrested because I had held a press conference on November 26, and said that deaths during the violence occurred in police firing,” Ali told mediapersons while being taken to the jail in Moradabad.

Four people had died and many, including 29 police personnel, sustained injuries in the violence in Sambhal on November 24.

Ali was detained by the police on November 25, 2024, a day after the violence outside the mosque, and was released after questioning.

In November, Sambhal Superintendent of Police (SP) Krishna Kumar had alleged that Ali informed “miscreants” about the survey team’s visits to the mosque on November 19 and 24, leading to the protests. The survey team left without completing the survey on November 19 due to the protest.

Another officer said Zafar Ali was inside the mosque with the survey team on November 24, but his information allegedly led to a large crowd gathering and engaging in violence.

Sambhal Additional SP Shirish Chand said on Sunday that Ali had been on the police’s radar since the day of the violence. “… that was why we picked him up for interrogation last year. Due to lack of proper evidence, we had to release him. But we have been gathering more clinching evidence since then,” he said.

Zafar Ali’s elder brother Tahir, however, said the police picked him up to prevent him from appearing on Monday before the judicial commission set up to investigate the Sambhal violence.

Tahir also said his brother will stand firm on his allegation that the four deaths in the violence were “caused due to police firing”. He said they would challenge his brother’s arrest in the Allahabad High Court.

So far, 80 people, including Zafar Ali and three women, have been arrested. No one has been granted bail.