Mumbai: A report had allegedly warned Mumbai police of possible “law-and-order problems” ahead of recent violence in the city that claimed two lives and left over 100 injured, including 45 policemen.
In the violence near Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in south Mumbai, about 100 public and private vehicles were damaged or destroyed, and the country's commercial capital was held to ransom for several tense hours.
A report in a news channel said that just before the commencement of protest, a mob of around 1,000 people, armed with sticks, rods, knives and swords, was noticed heading to the CST from Kurla station.
However, the Mumbai police say this mob infiltrated the protest to execute a conspiracy of violence.
Meanwhile, a report in The Indian Express claimed that Additional Commissioner of Police (Special Branch) Nawal Bajaj had sent a confidential report to Mumbai Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik and Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Rajnish Seth in which he warned that “law and order problems are expected”. The letter also urged “heavy police bandobast”.
The report said that the recent developments in Assam and Myanmar had angered the Muslim community. It predicted a “charged atmosphere” at the ground, adding Muslims were told about the protest during Friday prayers and would be present in large numbers.
However, despite these warnings, the Mumbai Police top brass were unprepared for violence.
The police were not expecting more than 3,000-4,000 people. Instead, 10,000 showed up. The organizers had told police in their application seeking permission to hold the rally that they were expecting a turnout of around 1,500. Some media reports yesterday pegged the actual figure at over 10,000, police said.
The newspaper quoted Patnaik as saying, “It is not true that we were caught unawares. The fact that there could have been trouble prompted the joint commissioner of police (law and order) to camp at the protest site. However, it is true that we did not expect anyone to torch media vans. The trouble began when a group from outside the venue attacked the media van. It all happened within five minutes.”
On Sunday, a report said that the violence in Mumbai appeared to be a "pre-planned" act.
What prompted police to suspect that the violence was per-meditated was that the word about the event was spread through Facebook, sources said, adding that the investigators might rope in the Cyber Crime cell to find out who posted the online messages and sent the SMS's.
Police suspect the violence to be a "per-planned" act as participants at the Azad Maidan rally came "prepared" to wreak havoc.
The rally turned violent with the mob pelting stones, torching vehicles and damaging buses, forcing police to open fire in which Mohammed Umar (22) and Altaf Shaikh (18) were killed.
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