The Nagpur police on Wednesday arrested Minority Democratic Party Leader Fahim Shamim Khan for his alleged role in the communal riots that erupted in Nagpur on Monday night, even as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) condemned the violence in the orange city and said that Aurangzeb was no longer relevant in the current context.
On a day when he reiterated that the Nagpur violence was a “pre-planned” incident triggered to disturb social harmony, Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that those who attacked the police during Monday’s disturbances in the orange city would be “dug out from their graves”.
Replying to a debate in the Maharashtra Assembly on the budgetary demands of the Home portfolio which he holds, Fadnavis categorically stated that the police had verified and found that any cloth on which Quranic verses were written was burnt during the protest against Aurangazeb in Nagpur on Monday.
Maintaining that the attacks on police were “unpardonable”, Fadnavis said: “Such people will be given the strictest punishment. Those who have attacked the police in Nagpur will be dug out from their graves,” he asserted.
“We will not leave them……. Nagpur is calm now. The city is known for its peace. There had been no riot in the city since 1992. The violence in Nagpur was a pre-planned incident by certain people. Only a replica of Aurangazeb’s grave was burnt. We have verified that no ayat (quranic verses) were burnt. But, rumours were spread deliberately. Those who spread rumours to disturb social harmony will be dealt with sternly. Some people have been arrested,” Fadnavis said.
Earlier in the day, Fahim Khan - being seen as the mastermind behind the Nagpur violence -- was arrested after his name was included in an FIR registered at the Ganeshpeth Police Station. Earlier in the day, the police released his photograph and a video that purportedly showed him delivering an inflammatory speech sometime before violence broke out in some parts of Nagpur on Monday evening.
After his arrest, Fahim Khan, a resident of Sanjay Bagh Colony in Yashodhara Nagar, was produced before a Nagpur court which remanded him in police custody till March 21.
Thirty-eight-year-old Fahim Khan has been named as one of the key accused in an 18-page FIR registered in connection with the Nagpur violence. The police said that preliminary investigations and the video that surfaced after Monday’s disturbances indicated that Khan’s inflammatory speech incited the violence.
Among other things, the FIR stated that Khan led a group of “50 to 60” people that gathered outside the Ganeshpeth police station on Monday and submitted a memorandum against the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s protest to the police. After the protest, Khan and eight others went to the Bhaldarpura area where he reportedly addressed a gathering of 600 people and criticised the VHP and Bajrang Dal.
It may be recalled that violence broke out on Monday evening, hours 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 at Khuldabad near Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (erstwhile Aurangabad) and allegedly 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 Ganesh Peth areas. At least 40 persons, including 33 police personnel, were injured and scores of vehicles were damaged in Bhaldarpura area
When specifically asked if Fahim Khan was the mastermind behind Monday’s violence, Nagpur Police Commissioner Virender Singal said that the investigations were underway to identify the key accused and the role of those named in the FIR. “Some names have come up. Police will investigate whether these people had any role from the beginning, whether they had criminal backgrounds, or whether they were planning (violence). All these aspects are being probed,” Singhal said, while talking to media persons in Nagpur on Wednesday.
Fahim Khan, as a Minority Democratic Party candidate, had contested unsuccessfully against senior BJP leader and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from Nagpur constituency. He had polled mere 1073 votes as against 6,55,027 votes secured by Gadkari
In all, six FIRs have so far been registered and 54 persons have been arrested in connection with the Nagpur violence.
In a related development, RSS’ Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh Sunil Ambekar condemned Nagpur violence, by saying that “any form of violence is detrimental to the society’s well-being.”
Interacting with media persons in Bengaluru where a three-day national convention of the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (ABPS) will take place from March 21 to 23, Ambekar said that the 17th-century Mughal emperor Aurangzeb “is no longer relevant in today’s context”.
“Any type of violence is not good for the health of the society…….,” Ambekar said.
Queried if the Aurangzeb’s tomb at Khuldabad near Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar in (erstwhile Aurangabad) in Maharashtra, Ambekar said: “ No. Aurangzeb is not relevant today,” Ambekar said.
