Secunderabad railway cops nab 50 'arsonists'

Hyderabad: A day after Agnipath violence at the Secunderabad Railway Station, the Railway police have arrested nearly 50 persons who were allegedly involved in the arson. The probing agencies were suspecting most of the arrested persons are students of the private Sai Defence Academy after the institution's Director A Subba Rao was detained by the Andhra Pradesh Police on Saturday morning.

The police suspect that the defence academy was the mastermind behind the arson and vandalism. Subba Rao is reportedly running nine coaching centres in the two Telugu states. Andhra Pradesh police were interrogating the academy director in their state.

The police gathered adequate information about the active role of the 12 arrested persons who brought petrol and set afire to train coaches and also vandalised the station on Friday.

One person died and several injured in the violent incidents against the Agnipath scheme, announced the Centre. They created WhatsApp groups like Hakimpet Army Soldiers, Secunderabad Railway Station Blocks, and 17/6 to circulate messages to the youth to reach the railway station to attend the protests.

The Secunderabad Railway Police booked cases against those indulged in violence. The cases were booked under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 143 (Unlawful assembly), 147 (Rioting), 324 (Voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons), 307 (Attempt to murder), 435 (Mischief by fire or explosive substance), 427 (Mischief causing damage), 448 (House trespass), 336 (Act endangering life or personal safety of others), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 341 r/w 149 A (Wrongful restraint), and different sections of The Railways Act. Around 1,000 army job aspirants reached Hyderabad from different parts of the Telangana state to take part in the agitation. A few from Andhra Pradesh also arrived and their identity is being traced based on the messages circulated between whatsapp groups created to orchestrate Agnipath protests.

Telangana State police also launched an investigation to find out the objective, conspiracy and detailed planning which was done to create such violent incidents and damage the railway properties.