Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 8: The police on Thursday arrested six more people, raising the number of those arrested so far to 11, a day after the anti-encroachment drive near the Faiz-e-Elahi mosque in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan area turned violent.
The police have also identified 10 social media influencers for allegedly spreading false claims about the demolition drive and has summoned a female social media influencer for questioning. The authorities said the anti-encroachment drive near Turkman Gate was carried out on the basis of a court order. The six people arrested earlier in the day were identified as, Afaan, Adil, Shahnawaz, Hamza, Atharr and Ubed, all are residents of the Turkman Gate area.
A Delhi court also remanded five arrested men to 13 days of judicial custody. The five accused — Mohammad Arib, Kashif, Adnan, Mohammad Kaif and Sameer — were produced before Judicial Magistrate Pooja Suhag.
According to senior officers, misleading posts and videos on social media, along with audio messages circulated on WhatsApp, fuelled panic and led to violence in the area.
The female influencer was called in after police monitoring teams flagged a video in which she allegedly claimed that a mosque in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan area had been razed. Preliminary checks found the claim to be false. The video, police said, was linked to misinformation surrounding a court-ordered anti-encroachment drive near the Faiz-e-Elahi Mosque area.
Police said misleading audio clips shared across multiple WhatsApp groups played a major role in spreading rumours about the alleged demolition of the Faiz-e-Elahi Mosque. The unrest broke out during an anti-encroachment drive near the mosque on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday. Police personnel were attacked with stones, leaving five officers injured, including the local station house officer.
Police said the trouble began after social media posts falsely claimed that the mosque opposite Turkman Gate was being demolished, prompting more than 200 people to gather and later pelt stones and bottles at police personnel and civic body workers.
Delhi Mayor Raja Iqbal Singh said a detailed survey would soon be carried out in areas surrounding Jama Masjid to identify encroachments. He said officials from concerned departments, including junior engineers and inspectors, regularly monitor the area and would be involved in the process.
“A survey will soon begin in all the areas near Jama Masjid where there is encroachment. We have (concerned) departments, JEs and inspectors who regularly visit the area. Soon, we will know about the encroachment and get the survey,” Singh said.
Referring to the Turkman Gate demolition site, the mayor said civic teams were working carefully to clear the area. “We are working diligently there (Turkman Gate demolition site). It will take a little time to remove the debris. We will try to clear the debris within two or three days,” he added.
The situation in Central Delhi’s Turkman Gate quickly escalated and spiralled into violence following a high court order on removing encroachments around the century-old Faiz-e-Elahi mosque. Despite pushback from some people, who protested against the drive, authorities by Wednesday morning had torn down a banquet hall, a private diagnostics centre and a room where Hajj pilgrims stayed, portions of a road, a footpath, and a car park.
Locals have denied what the police said about the events, saying that while locals were protesting and raising slogans, police used tear gas shells to disperse the crowds first and the stone pelting was retaliatory.
