Sambhal police on Sunday took the head of the Shahi Jama Masjid’s management committee into custody, a day before he was to travel to Lucknow to depose before the judicial commission probing the November 24 violence outside the mosque.
Zafar Ali, who had earlier alleged that Hindutva groups had provoked a Muslim mob into violence that day, was detained after refusing to parrot a police-dictated statement before the commission, his family said, alleging “intimidation”.
Officially, the police wouldn’t say what the charges against Ali are. Speaking off the record, an officer suggested that Ali might be arrested on the charge of inciting the mob violence that killed four people.
“Some policemen had called my brother to the police station last night and dictated a statement, asking him to repeat it before the judicial commission. But he refused. They came and took him to the police station again at 11am today,” Ali’s elder brother Tahir Hussain told reporters outside Kotwali police station in the afternoon.
Tahir did not reveal the content of the statement. He said he hadn’t been allowed to talk to his brother inside the police station on Sunday.
“The police told me they were taking him to the district hospital for a medical examination before producing him before a court and having him sent to jail,” Tahir said.
“Zafar had told a news conference after the November 24 violence that the police and some Hindutva groups had provoked the mob andlater the police fired and killed four people. The policemen had hurled invectives atthe people.”
Tahir added: “He (Ali) will say the same thing before the judicial commission. We don’t fear the police; let them arrest him but our fight for our rights will continue.”
Sambhal additional superintendent of police Shrish Chandra said: “The head of the mosque committee has been detained by the SIT (special investigation team) but we have no further details at the moment.”
Speaking unofficially, a police source said: “Zafar Ali had provoked the crowd to attack the police. We have to interrogate him thoroughly and arrest him, if necessary.”
The mob-police clash had broken out during a court-ordered survey of the mosque to ascertain whether it stood over the remains of a destroyed temple. Hindu petitioners had claimed that Mughal emperor Aurangzeb had demolished a temple and built the mosque at the site.
Some sources have alleged that a relentless chant of “Jai Shri Ram” by unidentified people during the survey — with the district magistrate and police chief turning a blind eye — had provoked the violence.
Ali had said the four victims died in police firing, but the police have claimed the deaths resulted from a gunfight between two rival groups within the mob.
“Zafar had met some people in the crowd at the police’s request to ask them not to take the law into their own hand. He is an advocate and represents the Jama Masjid in court. The state government is clearly trying to intimidate him,” Tahir said.
Ali was also supervising the whitewash, painting and decorative lighting of the mosque, which the mosque committee had got a reluctant Archaeological Survey of India to carry out by approaching the high court.
“The whitewash andpainting are complete; the ASI is doing the light decorations to prepare the mosquefor Eid,” mosque committee secretary Masood Faruqui said.