Old City Riots: 5 In Police Custody

3 persons, responsible for the murder of a motorist, a constable and a person in a van on the Shahalibanda road, all on March 29 - were arrested by the city police for murders during riots in the old city. 4 more were detained for questioning in a 30 March case involving the killing of a salesman through stone-pelting by a mob at Tappachabutra.

Meanwhile, T Raju Singh, a Telugu Desam Party corporator from Mangalhat, has surrendered himself to the Task Force. Accepting that he was involved in initiating the communal violence in the old city on March 27, he had approached the Task Force earlier this week. Bizarrely, he had ended up waiting for the officers concerned to come and arrest him, and had returned home. Raju Singh now under police custody.

Meanwhile, the prayers in the Old City went peacefully on Friday amid heavy security arrangements, thus prompting the curfew to be relaxed even further by 5 hours. The curfew will now be effective only from 10pm to 5am.

The old city is still being perturbed by misfits trying to spread unrest among the locals, and, according to Commisioner A K Khan, the curfew will be lifted entirely if peace prevails. Investigations continue as police continue to round up the miscreants behind the riots using videographic images as major evidence.