less than 24 hours after a 48-hour deadline set by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis for a breakthrough in the New Panvel church attack case, the Navi Mumbai police on Tuesday arrested four miscreants allegedly behind the incident and seized a vehicle used by them in the act of vandalism.
Identifying the four alleged miscreants arrested by the Navi Mumbai police as Rahul Patil (39) Anukchandra Chavan (27) lakshman Sugwekar (21) and Mohammed Tabrek Shaikh (20) in connection with the church attack case, the Chief Minister said that the incident was fallout of a raid conducted by the local police on a gambling den located in the vicinity of the church.
In a suo motu statement made in the State Asembly, Fadnavis said that the arrested persons had confessed to their involvement in the attack on
St George Catholic Church at New Panvel in the early hours of Saturday.
Four arrested persons have been booked under Section 295 (injuring or defiling a place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class), 427 (mischief), and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.
Fadnavis said that the preliminary investigations by the police had revealed that Patil, one of the four arrested persons, ran an illegal gambling den in the vicinity of the
St George Catholic Church. The Navi Mumbai police had conducted a raid on the den on March 19.
“Suspecting that the church officials had tipped off the police about the illegal activities at the den, Patil with help from three others hurled stones at the church at 1.30 am on Saturday,” the Chief Minister said.
Four unidentified masked men, who had arrived at the church, hurled stones the St George Church at New Panvel in the early hours of Saturday, breaking into pieces a glass covering the statue of Saint George installed in front of the church. The vandals had been captured on CCTV cameras installed at the church.