The Uttar Pradesh Police has filed a 3000-page charge sheet against 124 accused to the Chief Judicial Magistrate's court in the Sambhal violence.
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00:00Hello and welcome you watching India First. I'm Gaurav Sawant. Big story coming in. The
00:04Uttar Pradesh police has filed its first charge sheet in the November 24 Sambal
00:09riots case where a mob targeted the police during a court-ordered survey of
00:14the Shahi Java Masjid that the Hindu side insists is the Kalki Avatar temple,
00:21the Hari Har Mandir. The police have made sensational revelations in the roughly
00:274,000 page charge sheet including the role of a Dubai-based gangster and an
00:32auto lifter from Sambal and an aide of 1993 Mumbai blast mastermind Daud
00:38Ibrahim Kaskar. The Uttar Pradesh police also insists they have details of the
00:44alleged money trail. Money came from outside for orchestrating the violence.
00:49Electronic evidence that suggests, apart from other things, political backing for
00:56the violence. Police also have details about where the arms and ammunition came
01:01from. Much more over the course of the next half-hour. Arvind Dojha gets you
01:06this report.
01:17Uttar Pradesh's Sambal witnessed violence on November 24th after locals
01:22gathered near the Shahi Java Masjid to protest against the local court-ordered
01:27survey of the mosque.
01:32As per Sambal police, the November 24th incident wasn't any ordinary communal
01:37violence. The police say the mastermind behind Sambal violence is a Dubai-based
01:44gangster, Shariq Satta.
02:00The police have also arrested Mohammad Gulam associated with Shariq Satta gang
02:05who allegedly supplied weapons to the rioters during the violence. The police
02:10claim Mohammad Gulam had allegedly planned to kill Vishnu Shankar Jain who
02:14had come from Delhi during the survey at the Jama Masjid.
02:40The police suspect the alleged mastermind Satta is associated with the D-Company.
03:1079 accused have been arrested so far in the Sambal violence that left five dead
03:21and dozens injured. With Arvind Dojha, in Sambal, Bureau Report, India Today.
03:30The Uttar Pradesh police insists the Sambal violence during the court-ordered
03:35survey at the mosque was well planned and orchestrated. They claim there is a
03:40money trail, there was careful planning that went into the attack that took place
03:44on the security forces, on the police. The plot apparently was also to target
03:49advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain pleading the case of the Hindu side. So let's
03:54decode this massive chart sheet that's been accessed by India Today. Joining me
03:58on India First is Krishnakumar Bishnoi, the Superintendent of Police Sambal. He's
04:03played a very key role in these investigations. Mr. Bishnoi, what is the
04:09evidence that you've been able to gather to suggest that the attack on the police
04:13was well planned? Good evening, Guruji. First of all, I would like to tell that
04:22there are 12 cases which were registered with regards to the violence which took
04:26place on 24th of November 2024. Seven cases were registered in Kotwali,
04:32Sambhal and four cases were registered in another police station called
04:37Nakasa because the incident did not only take place at one place but they were
04:42scattered in different different places and one zero-FI was registered in
04:46Moradabad. In all total, there were 12 cases which were registered related to
04:50the violence. Six of them have been charged so far which pertained to the
04:56one which was CEO Anuj Chaudhary. He was fired upon and he got hit. My PRO and
05:02myself, we got hit. So, there was one case registered with regards to that. One of
05:07our sub-inspector called Shah Faisal, he's Chokki Prabari, Deepa Sarai, IC Outpost
05:13and his bike bullet was, you know, put to fire along with a leopard which was also
05:19the police's bike. So, that way, overall cases were registered by police and out
05:25of which six have been charged. In these cases where they were charged, the
05:31persons who had fired upon from the roofs, the ladies who had thrown stones
05:36from the roofs of their houses along with the persons who got
05:41together, almost I can say 2,000 to 3,000 persons, they assembled and they
05:47pelted stones at police. They hurled the tear gas shells back at police. They had
05:54their faces covered. They had different kind of paste which they had applied on
05:58their faces and along with that, when the sound of the stun grenade and the
06:03chili grenade and everything was there, they also fired upon the policemen also
06:07got hurt. You know, in an all, 29 policemen and one SDM got hurt and out
06:13of which three had sustained bullet injuries and three had sustained
06:18fractures which also include frontal bone fracture. Mr. Vishnoy, what can you tell me
06:23about the money trail? Where did the money come from? There is some talk about
06:28money being transferred into accounts of people in Sambal. Where did the money
06:32come from? What was the purpose? So, yesterday, police caught one person
06:38called Gulam, son of Mukhtar. He's a resident of Deepa Sarai. He's a notorious
06:44auto lifter of Delhi NCR. In a year, he claims that almost 400 to 500 luxury
06:51vehicles they are stealing from Delhi NCR and nearby districts and what they
06:56do is they steal these vehicles and then they, by hacking these, they collect it
07:03from the dark web and then they take it to the northeast or on the borders of
07:06India and that's where they get the smuggling of the arms as well and then
07:12these arms are sold across the country. So, this fellow was caught with the one
07:169mm pistol, two 32 bore pistols and one country-made weapon called Tamancha
07:22along with the cartridges from England, Germany, Czechoslovakia, USA and
07:31Pakistan ordnance made, factory made cartridges. So, that was a startling
07:35revelation for us as well and when we asked him where did you get all these
07:39the cartridges and all, so basically the exchange of the auto lifting, the selling
07:45these Fortuners and some Brezza and these kind of vehicles and in return
07:48getting these illegal arms and then supplying them to different parts of the
07:53country. That is where most of their revenue comes from and this revenue is
07:59only these people most of the time they use to motivate people to take up arms.
08:05In this particular case, what the intention was to so-called Masjid ki
08:10Hifazat Karna, this is a one word which is you know echoing across all the
08:18accused who have been apprehended so far, almost 80 of them and
08:22all of them had said that they were there with this one motive to protect
08:25the mosque, whereas upon asking this Mr. Gulam, he said that the main planning
08:31was that on the 23rd, they were told by their boss who is no more in India, he has
08:37absconded to Dubai, he told that survey should not take place at any cost and
08:44that's the point I was coming to, so their boss the Shariq Satta, he's in
08:49Dubai, how is he linked to the violence, what was his instruction to his henchmen?
08:56So basically on 19th, first time survey took place, after that we could not
09:00conduct the survey because there were elections and etc. 24th morning was
09:04decided, so in the late 23rd evening, it was conveyed to the Sadar of the Jama
09:10Masjid that early in the morning, you please come with your persons and the
09:15survey will be conducted and then the message is spread across the town and
09:18somebody from the town itself, so far we have not been able to trace who that
09:21person is, he communicated the same to Shariq Satta and Shariq communicated
09:26to Gulam through an app called Jangi app, that app doesn't have any
09:32database, they have deleted everything from that, we will try to retrieve
09:36whatever data they have deleted, through that Jangi app, he received the
09:39instruction that at any cost, survey should not take place and at the same
09:44time, one must ensure that this lawyer who keeps on filing petition
09:48everywhere, he should be fixed, he should be taught a lesson and with that motive
09:53only, he basically the person called Mullah Afroz, he had given the arms to
09:58him and to one another fellow called Waris and these people came up with
10:02these sophisticated weapons and then they fired upon the public and as
10:06well as police. So was the plot, when you say that lawyer needs to be fixed, are we
10:12talking about advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain and when you say fixed, was there
10:16plot to kill Vishnu Shankar Jain because he was fighting the case for the Hindus
10:21for the Harihar Mandir there? Not only Harihar Mandir, there's the narrative is
10:27that he keeps on filing cases in several different different courts. So yes
10:32absolutely, the motive was to kill him. There are two ways to reach that
10:38Jama Masjid, right behind the disputed site, they lit I think three vehicles of
10:46police as well as private cars, they were put to fire and just when they put to
10:51fire, we had to withdraw from our positions but we could not leave the
10:55stairs of that mosque otherwise had we vacated those two positions, there would
11:00have been a different story and we all would have been in trouble and had
11:05these rioters entered the disputed site area where the survey was taking place,
11:11certainly there would have been a mishap but police faced the hurling of the
11:16stones as well as we stood the ground there, ourselves we got hit, sustained
11:22fractures, bullet injuries but we did not leave that place, that's why Vishnu
11:25Shankar Jain was safe and he could come out and tell the world that the
11:30survey was completed which was directed by the court to conduct the survey. So I
11:35would say that it was the motive to go after Vishnu Shankar Jain at any cost, we
11:41came in between. And had you left that place when they started the arson, when they
11:44started the violence, the aim was to take the police away that were protecting the
11:49entrance to the mosque and their aim was then to target the advocate in the
11:53mosque and that would have led to riots or violence across the
11:57country, was that the aim? There is apparently some conversation that's
12:02taking place on social media platforms also, what evidence have you been able to
12:07gather in terms of electronic evidence on the conversations that were happening
12:10on these apps? So they say that on the Jangi app nothing gets registered, the
12:17moment the message is seen by the next party, the most messages get deleted. So
12:21there is nothing much we could retrieve but he accepted that through this app
12:26they communicate. Most important part is that when they, this arson and this
12:31so-called firing and as well as the stone pelting and throwing the tear gas
12:37shell back, what the most important thing they did was they I think destroyed all
12:42the CCTV cameras which were there. So that around 9.15, 9.20 they destroyed all
12:47the CCTV cameras which were there. After that they started marching towards the
12:52disputed side which is Jama mosque and at the same time we held two positions
12:57so their main target was to move us away from that place. I think police sustained
13:03a lot of injuries but was successfully conducted the survey otherwise Vishnu
13:08Shankar Jain would have been in trouble and I think the same thing could be also
13:13asked to that lawyer as well who was in trouble that day. Oh absolutely and that
13:18would indicate all of this was very well planned, very well orchestrated. Had the
13:23police moved away as their effort was, the consequences God forbid could have
13:28been disastrous. Mr. Bishnoi, what has been the alleged role of political
13:33leaders from that area? A member of Parliament, son of a member of
13:37Legislative Assembly, what was their role in this violence? Are they being
13:43charge-sheeted? Is there enough evidence to prosecute them legally? The case which
13:50is about the conspiracy of this incident, investigation is ongoing so
13:58there is nothing much I can communicate in that but certainly on 19th of
14:04November the MP of Sambhal had given a statement and on 22nd of November there
14:11was a whatsapp group which we are able to access now that is Sansad Sambhal
14:16and in that whatsapp group on 21st night they had asked a lot of people to gather
14:21to that place and literally we had to work very hard to make peace that day on
14:27the Friday which was Jumaikhi Namaz so it was very tough for us to handle the
14:31situation that day and in that frenzy crowd he gave a speech to protect the
14:35mosque at any cost and he said that we will protect the mosque at any cost
14:39and will not let it be taken away and that message spread like a
14:44wildfire amongst the public and that's why they could easily motivate
14:49people to protect the mosque the very next day on 24th morning. Do you see a
14:57wider conspiracy here one charge sheet has been filed there are other charge
15:03sheets that are on their way we are told several CCTV cameras have been destroyed
15:07people had their faces covered have you been able to identify all the writers is
15:12there clarity on who shot those five people and the bodies that were later
15:18recovered from the arms and ammunition do we have an idea about who the
15:23conspirators and the perpetrators were we have arrested two person one mr.
15:30Mullah Afroz who received these weapons from Ghulam and another fellow called
15:36Waris he has also been apprehended and sent to jail these people were recovered
15:41with the weapons they have been sent to forensic lab for their to ascertain
15:46whether the cartridges which were recovered from the from the incident
15:50site do they match with the weapon or not but these two have been arrested and
15:55Ghulam had accepted that the same thing was supplied by Ghulam only so yes we
15:59have those people who had fired upon these persons National Security Act NSA
16:04shall be slapped against these persons who had tried to incinerate inside
16:08violence that day and the aim the wider aim to incite violence so while they
16:14tried while several people tried to blame the police that police used rare
16:19Kanuni hathiyar to open fire what have your investigations revealed because we
16:24saw the politics around it now there are details and you've carried out detailed
16:28investigations what can you tell us who fired why what was the motive who killed
16:34who on on the 24th of November sir wherever the police was deployed we had
16:41almost 20 correspondence of different different news papers or media outlets
16:48amongst them were several from Delhi which were a prominent ones police was
16:53nowhere in the in the in the place where they could they could fire use
16:57country-fed weapons we were in a position where he were facing the stones
17:01and all there is nobody had the time to even grapple with the situation where
17:05one could even plan or think of such a things we could not even even even
17:09process the situation but just that the direction the good thing was that that
17:14very day the DM of some of the myself and and my subordinate officers were
17:19there were very brave and we withstood the situation else it would have been a
17:24different story I myself sustained a bullet injury so it is very easy to say
17:34sit on a chair and say that the police can do that these conspiracy theories
17:39are easy to say when you face everyone throwing stones and some of them
17:47everybody had their faces covered I think that is when the real courage
17:52comes and there was a such days do not come in India but I am very proud of my
17:59my my boys and the force that day they put up a very good show and they
18:04protected the the minority population of sambal which has always faced the
18:09troubles whenever the riots have taken place almost 16 and that wider
18:13conspiracies earlier that wider conspiracy to target our country and to
18:18tarnish you know the communal harmony that prevails you know congratulations
18:24to you and your team the first charge sheet has been filed and we'll be
18:27tracking the story very very closely mr. Vishnoy for joining me here on India
18:32today many thanks thank you thank you the Uttar Pradesh police have cracked
18:38the whip on those who took pictures and videos of women devotees taking a dip at
18:43the Holi Sangam at Prayagraj uploaded them online and then sold them on
18:47multiple social media platforms from Instagram to telegram based on an India
18:53today television investigation the UP police registered multiple FIRs and
18:58cyber patrolling teams are now scouting websites not only to identify the
19:03perpetrators who took these pictures they want to take these pictures down
19:07they also want to take down those people who are putting these pictures up those
19:12who are sharing these pictures and those who are buying these pictures police
19:16have issued a very stern warning saying those who buy these pictures online are
19:20equally guilty and will be booked under stringent sections of the law
19:31big India today impact
19:35following India today's investigation revealing a disturbing trend of secretly
19:40recorded videos of women changing clothes and bathing at the Mahakumbh being
19:46shared and sold on social media the Uttar Pradesh police have taken note of
19:51the issue and registered cases against social media accounts involved an
19:57Instagram account at Neha 1224872024 was found posting inappropriate
20:06clips some of which were used as teasers to sell full videos on platforms like
20:12telegram action has also been taken against a telegram channel CCTV channel
20:1911 where such videos were allegedly sold for prices ranging from 1999 to 3000
20:28rupees
20:42the police have initiated legal proceedings in these cases and are
20:54working actively to apprehend the culprits
20:59some of these posts were being used as teasers to lure users into purchasing
21:12full videos on platforms like telegram the police say strict action will be
21:18taken against individuals misusing social media to distribute objectionable
21:24content or misinformation related to Mahakumbh
21:28Bureau report India today
21:34we'll continue to track developments on the story very closely that is all I
21:38have for you on India first this evening many thanks for watching