Cuttack: City Congress chief Md Moquim and 17 other Congressmen, including three councillors, were arrested on Thursday for allegedly ransacking a police station here and assaulting personnel.
The spree of arrests started after midnight and continued into the day. Md Moquim was the last to be picked up around 8.20am.
"Md Moquim, along with his party workers, had gone to the Purighat police station on Tuesday and intimidated and assaulted police station staff before ransacking the office," said deputy commissioner of police Akhileswar Singh.
He said Md Moquim and his aides caused injuries to a public servant and stopped him from performing his duty, disturbed peace and traffic near the police station.
"A case has been registered and Md Moquim and 17 other party workers has been arrested," Singh said.
Official records indicated that the case has been registered against them with charges under 13 sections of the IPC and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act. The charges among others include unlawful assembly with the common intention of rioting. Those arrested and forwarded to the court included three Congress councillors - Giribala Behera, Arun Kumar Sethi and Sk Shamim Ullah.
As Thursday was Ganesh Chaturthi holiday, all the 18 were produced at the residence of the SDJM, Cuttack (Sadar), at Badambadi at around 5pm.
"After taking note of the circumstances and persons involved, SDJM Sipikantha Pradhan granted bail to all the 18 accused, the City Congress Chief," assistant public prosecutor Biswajit Baral said.
On Tuesday, Congress activists turned violent and ransacked the Purighat police station while protesting against the arrest of a party worker.
The Congress activists led by City Congress president Md Moquim reached the Purighat police station at around 11 am and started picketing before it.
The demonstration turned violent when inspector in-charge Rashmi Ranjan Sahoo said release of the accused was not possible. The outcry of the Congress workers was unreasonable as the arrest of Bijaya Kumar Barik was part of a routine drive for implementing pending arrest warrants, the DCP said.
