Police arrest 2 for confessing to arson rioting in Bahraich violence on camera

Bahraich (UP), Oct 23 (PTI) Police here on Wednesday arrested two men who in a video purportedly claimed that violence in Bahraich was "sponsored" and confessed to have taken part in it.
     Bahraich Superintendent of Police Vrinda Shukla had on Tuesday rubbished the claims made in the video as rambling of drunk men.
     Prem Kumar Mishra and Saburi Mishra, both natives of Salik Purwa village in Hardi Police Station area, were arrested for allegedly being involved in incidents of arson and violence in Maharajganj locality on October 14.
     In the video, the two men were seen discussing that the Maharajganj riots were sponsored.
     Shukla had on Tuesday told PTI that the two men were unreliable and seemed drunk when they made the claims.
     "We completely deny the allegations. People who are themselves 'high' cannot be considered reliable. In the video, they look like drunkards, folding chippad (an intoxicant). We have deployed a team to locate him, since he (the person shown in the sting video) is himself admitting his crime," he said.
     After the video surfaced online, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav attacked the BJP alleging that its workers were involved in the Bahraich violence.
     He also alleged that the party was giving a "free hand" to lumpen elements, just as German dictator Hitler did, to indulge in violence on its behalf.
     "If anyone rioted in Bahraich, it was the BJP workers. Their MLA is filing FIR against his own party workers for conspiring to cause riots," Yadav earlier said in Lucknow.
     So far, police have lodged 15 FIRs in the communal violence that took place in the district's Maharajganj area on October 13 and 14.
     More than 100 people have been arrested in the matter, of whom 75 were named in FIRs while 25 were arrested for breach of peace.
     Violence broke out in Maharajganj on October 13 allegedly over loud music being played outside a place of worship during a Durga Puja immersion procession.
     Ram Gopal Mishra, 22, part of the passing group, died of a gunshot wound in the ensuing violence.
     A video which circulated after the incident showed him removing a green flag from the rooftop of a house in a frenzy and supplanting it with a saffron flag. He was shot immediately afterwards.
     The death triggered a series of flagrant incidents in the area with angry mobs torching several houses, shops, showrooms, hospitals, and vehicles.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)