By: Rohit Alok The police have begun to collect various video recordings that were shot from numerous cellphones of eyewitnesses to help them probe the communal clashes that broke out in central Mumbai on Sunday night during the annual Eid-E-Milad procession. R D Shinde, additional commissioner of police (central region), said that besides the text messages that went viral on social media platform WhatsApp, there were also photos and videos that fuelled the panic on the night of the incident. Two separate incidents on Sunday evening at Dr Baba Ambedkar road under the Lalbaug flyover had triggered violence in areas of Lalbaug and Parel. One involving a woman being injured by a rash driver at 6.30 pm, and the another was when five bike riders got into a tiff with a policemen near the Bharat Mata junction at 8 pm. “One of the ways of how were are probing the matter is by collecting material evidence in the form of videos that have been shot not only by numerous eyewitnesses but also by the police officers who were present on the spot,” Shinde said. The police are also studying the nearby CCTV camera footage of the local shops in the affected areas. “The footage will help us to identify the miscreants responsible for the riot and only then we could take subsequent action against them,” Shinde added. In one such video shot from the second-floor parking lot of the Veer Mahal building at the Bharat Mata junction, the 35-second footage shows a group of men assaulting a bike rider. Within moments, three policemen are seen running towards the group waving their lathis. The police separate the rider, dressed in a white salwar kameez, from the crowd. They are later seen escorting him away from the spot of the incidence. The video is now taken as an evidence, confirmed officials. According to the police, there are now six FIRs that have been registered and two separate non-cognizable complaints. “No one has been detained or arrested by the police yet in the matter,” Shinde said. Two cases of arson under the Indian Penal Code at Worli and Bhoiwada police stations after two vehicles were burnt in addition to four others cases for rioting and unlawful assembly, police said. “We are still in bandobast phase. Currently, there at least 1,000 police personnel deployed on the main stretch of Lalbaug and other sensitive points in central Mumbai. They will be gradually withdrawn. We have already given relief to a lot of units.” On the night of the incident, additional force comprising squads from the local police, State Reserve Police, Quick Response Team and Riot Control Police was deployed in the affected areas.
