Court grants police custodial remand of 16 alleged rioters

The Pusad court has granted the police, custodial remand of 16 alleged rioters, out of 27 people, against whom FIRs were registered on Wednesday evening by the police.
The city in Eastern Maharashtra (Vidarbha region) has returned to normalcy and the situation is under total control, Yavatmal Superintendent of Police Ranjan Kumar Sharma said here on Thursday.
However, the police official denied speculative reports about imposition of curfew in the city, which had appeared in a section of the media.
"We have not imposed any curfew in the riot torn city of Pusad," Sharma said, adding that Section 37 (1) of the Mumbai Police Act was imposed after the incident, while the situation was brought under control by deploying additional State Reserve Police force from neighbouring districts of Washim and Akola.

"We have registered criminal offences against 27 people and arrested 16 of them so far," Sharma said, adding that Pusad Municipal Council Deputy Chief Mohammad Nadeem was among prominent people who are suspected to have allegedly masterminded the riot.
While elaborating on the background of the incident, Sharma said that there was a verbal duel between the Mohammad Nadeem's brother and Assistant Police Inspector on duty Dheeraj Chavan about illegal parking of motorbikes on the road during Eid day, which took an ugly turn, after more than 500 people took out a protest march to the city police station demanding suspension of API Dheeraj Chavan.

"Mohammad Nadeem contacted me on phone and reiterated their demand for action against API Chavan, after which I shifted Chavan to the police control room," Sharma said, adding that the rioters were allegedly instigated by Nadeem and his brothers which led to stone pelting and burning of shops.