Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said investigations seem to point at a “Bangladeshi link” in the recent Nagpur communal riot. He said the police are investigating if there were “larger designs” behind the riot which was provoked through social media.
“It has been found that some social media posts were in Bengali, which is the kind of Bengali spoken in Bangladesh. We will probe whether there is a larger design,” he told reporters here.
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He said that the mastermind in the case, Fahim Khan, of the Minorities Democratic Party, hails from Malegaon in Nashik district. “One of the masterminds of the Nagpur riots hails from Malegaon. A thorough investigation will be conducted and those who spoiled the atmosphere will not be spared.
“We have also filed cases against VHP and Bajrang Dal members. If attacks on the police are tolerated, law and order in the state will collapse. Therefore, we shall teach the culprits a lesson,” Fadnavis said.
Fadnavis also claimed that the Nagpur incident cannot not be described as intelligence failure. “We cannot call it an intelligence failure. However, the monitoring of social media after noon was inadequate. Inflammatory posts were spread through social media. We have the capacity for social media monitoring, but we need to develop the habit of using it.
“Now, violence is less on the streets and more through social media. The police responded in the quickest possible time and this can be seen in the CCTV footage,” he said.
He said that an investigation is on into whether there were some “larger designs” in the Nagpur riot incident. “In the past incidents of violence in the country, we have seen a pattern. Whether the same pattern was there in Nagpur also is being investigated. More than 100 persons have been arrested so far,” Fadnavis said.
Meanwhile, the police has stated that the Nagpur riot mastermind Fahim Khan allegedly spread inflammatory and morphed videos before the violence began. “Khan proactively shared his inflammatory video, which propagated hate against another community and police,” said cyber cell DCP Lohit Matani.
Khan had also led a protest to Ganeshpeth police station on Monday, to file a complaint against VHP and Bajrang Dal members for allegedly burning an effigy of Aurangzeb and a religious chadar. After he left the police station, he allegedly posted a video blaming the police for shielding VHP and Bajrang Dal demonstrators which went viral, leading to the violence in Nagpur.
According to the police a 250-member “troll army” played a key role in making the video go viral on social media. Some of the posts were allegedly doctored to escalate tensions. “There was no holy inscription on a cloth chadar burned near Gandhi Gate. The videos were morphed,” a cyber sleuth said.
Police cyber sleuths also identified social media users from Bangladesh, amplifying hate speech. “The ferocity of the troll army was no less than the rioters on the ground,” the cyber cell official said.
