Muzaffarnagar riots: 5 arrested over youth's killing

Muzaffarnagar (UP):Police Tuesday arrested five people accused of killing a man whose death was a trigger for the Muzaffarnagar riots in 2013.

According to the prosecution, the five -- Prahlad, Bishan Singh, Tendu, Devender and Jitender -- were arrested when the police reached their homes in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar district to execute a court order to attach their properties.

They were produced in a court, where Acting Chief Judicial Magistrate Vipin Kumar rejected their bail plea, saying there was no case of bail. They were sent to judicial custody till Friday, said advocate Mohsin Raza Zaidi, the complainant's lawyer.

The five are among the six accused who were facing arrest warrants in connection with the Shahnawaz murder case.

The court had ordered that the property of all the six accused be attached after they failed to surrender before it despite repeated arrest warrants. The remaining accused, Ravinder, is absconding.

The six had allegedly stabbed Shahnawaz to death at Kawal village in Jansath area on August 27, 2013.

His death and that of two other youths in another incident were said to be the trigger behind the communal clashes in Muzaffarnagar and adjoining areas in August and September 2013, which claimed 60 lives and displaced over 40,000 people.