Sixty-seven residents of Padarayanapura have been arrested for rioting, hours after a police checkpoint and barricades in the West Bengaluru neighbourhood were destroyed on Sunday night.
The suspects, one of them is a woman, are also accused of attacking BBMP workers and healthcare staff who were deployed to monitor the situation in the neighbourhood that has been sealed after several residents tested positive for Covid-19.
Soumendu Mukherjee, Additional Commissioner of Police (West), said some of the arrested suspects were primary and secondary contacts of three Covid-19 patients from the area and will be sent into quarantine after being questioned. The arrests began on Sunday night itself and more will follow, he added.
Padarayanapura and the adjoining ward of Bapuji Nagar were sealed on April 11 after five residents tested positive for Covid-19. One of them, a 65-year-old woman (patient number 281), died at Victoria Hospital on Sunday.
Following the fatality, BBMP health officials made a list of the woman’s 58 secondary contacts to test them for Covid-19 and put them in quarantine. The officials had already moved nearly 20 people to a quarantine centre and were in the process of shifting the remaining 38 residents when the attack occurred.
According to the police, 22 BBMP and police officers had gone to Arfath Nagar, Padarayanapura, to take the remaining secondary contacts to a government-run quarantine centre. While some residents agreed, others refused to come out of their homes and demanded that they be put in quarantine at their homes.
Things flared up soon after, and the residents went on a rampage, vandalising a marquee and chairs at the checkpoint, destroying the barricades and damaging streetlights and CCTV cameras, according to the police.
5 FIRs registered
Ramesh B, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West), said five FIRs had been registered against 70 residents, four of whom have been identified as Wajid, Irfan, Kabeer and Irshad Ahmed. The woman suspect is named Farzoova.
The FIRs state that a group came to the checkpoint and instigated others to attack and kill the workers.
The police believe Farzoova sells marijuana and that some of the youths involved in the attack were taking drugs. They are investigating whether some of the suspects were associated with a state-level organisation.
The residents have been booked under IPC sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharge of his duty), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with a deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 271 (disobedience to quarantine rule), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means) and under the Prevention of Destruction and Loss of Property Act.
Tight security
Following the ruckus, the area has been put under tight security. A 100-member team, including members of the Garuda force, have been deployed there. Police caned a few residents who stepped out on Monday, said a senior officer.
Residents say the flare-up was caused by the BBMP’s failure to deliver essential items, such as food and milk. Since the area was sealed, the BBMP had promised to supply the essentials but failed to do so.
Most of the residents are construction and beedi workers, and depend on daily wages. They complained to the jurisdictional JJ Nagar police on Sunday after many of them didn't get milk. The police took up the matter with the BBMP but the civic body turned a blind eye to the issue, making residents frustrated and angry, a resident said.