A Bangladeshi link has emerged during the investigations into the recent Nagpur riots, with the police identifying as many as several fake social media posts, including the ones with Bangladesh IP addresses.
In the investigations conducted into social media posts that surfaced prior to and after the March 17 riots, the Nagpur cyber police sleuths have identified 97 such fake posts which were offensive in nature. Many of the social media posts reportedly came from computers with Bangladeshi IP addresses.
The Nagpur cyber police personnel are investigating four FIRs registered in connection with the rumour-mongering that went on ahead of the communal violence, in which nearly 40 persons, including 33 police personnel, were injured and scores of vehicles were damaged in Bhaldarpura area of Nagpur.
The violence broke out late on the evening of March 17 after the 200-odd workers of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal staged a protest near the Shivaji Maharaj statue in Nagpur demanding the removal of Aurangzeb’s tomb and allegedly burnt the burnt an effigy of Aurangazeb. However, the protest sparked rumours that a holy book had been desecrated, leading to violence in Nagpur’s Chitnis Park, Mahal, Kotwali and Ganeshpeth.
Meanwhile, it has come to l9ight that the alleged mastermind behind the Nagpur riots Fahim Shamim Khan, who is a Minority Democratic Party leader, hails from the communally-sensitive town of Malegaon in Nashik district in north Maharashtra.
Speaking at an event organised by a Marathi news channel, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said: “One of the masterminds of the Nagpur riots hails from Malegaon. A thorough investigation will be conducted and those who spoiled the atmosphere will not be spared. We have also filed cases against VHP and Bajrang Dal members. If we tolerate the attacks on the police, law and order in the state will collapse. Therefore, we shall teach the culprits a lesson,” he said.
Fadnavis, who holds the state Home Portfolio, said that the Nagpur riots could not be described as a fallout of “intelligence failure”. “We cannot term it as intelligence failure. However, the monitoring of social media after noon was inadequate. Inflammatory posts were spread through social media. We have the capacity for social media monitoring, but we need to develop the habit of using it. Now, violence is less on the streets and more through social media,” the Chief Minister said.
The chief minister said that whether there were some larger plan or design was being probed. “In the past incidents of violence in the country, we have seen a pattern…whether the same pattern was there in Nagpur also is being investigated. More than 100 persons have been arrested so far”
“Some of the offensive social media posts were found to be in Bengali.. In fact, it is the kind of Bengali spoken in Bangladesh. We will probe whether there is a larger design,” Fadnavis said.
