Asad jailed for ’05 rioting

Asad jailed for ’05 rioting

Surrenders Before Sangareddy Court; Bandh In Old City, T Dists

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Hyderabad: MIM supremo and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi surrendered before a local court in Sangareddy in Medak district – not more than 25 kms from the state capital – on Monday morning in connection with a case of rioting and other charges registered in 2005.
    Named as accused number one in the case, Asaduddin was remanded in judicial custody till February 2 by special judicial first class magistrate Maruti Devi and lodged in the district jail at Sangareddy. A bail application moved by the MP is slated to be heard on Tuesday. His younger brother Akbaruddin Owaisi is accused number two in the case and has already been produced before the magistrate here on a prisoner transit warrant by the Nirmal police in Adilabad where he is in judicial custody. A non-bailable warrant had been pending against the duo but with the MIM part of the ruling UPA at the Centre, the police had not bothered to execute it.
    Asaduddin’s surrender and subsequent arrest had its repercussions across the state beginning with Sangareddy where a spontaneous bandh was observed. Large parts of Hyderabad’s Old City shut down immediately even as additional forces were rushed. MIM activists took out rallies and enforced a bandh in Adilabad, Nizamabad, Karimnagar and Warangal districts. While the MIM has officially not called for a bandh to protest the arrest of Asaduddin, normalcy is likely to be affected in Old City and other parts of the state on Tuesday as well. Sources, however, said that the MIM is not going to precipitate trouble in an organized fashion.
    What could be worrisome for the cops is that Milad-un-Nabi, the Prophet’s birthday, falls next Friday (Jan25) and a general outpouring of anger over the recent developments involving the MIM leaders among the Muslim community could shake the fragile peace in Old City and elsewhere in the state. “Hyderabad city in particular and the state in general will be on a high alert in the coming days,” said a top police official.
    The arrest of Asaduddin was on the cards ever since the police suddenly woke up to the 2005 case pending against the Owaisi brothers a few days after the younger brother and MLA was arrested by the Adilabad police on January 8, for a hate speech he delivered at Nirmal a fortnight back. Police sources claimed that they did intend to arrest Asaduddin, but wanted to do so after Milad-un- Nabi. “We did not want to trigger anger and unrest in the minority community at the time of Milad-un- Nabi,” a police source said. But sensing the police game, Asaduddin on his own accord drove down to Sangareddy and presented himself before the magistrate at around 10 am on Monday. The Hyderabad MP immediately moved a recall petition against the non-bailable warrant issued in the case against him in 2010, but the court dismissed it and remanded him in judicial custody. Asaduddin then moved a bail application which is slated to be heard on Tuesday.
    Meanwhile, five MIM activists each were arrested in Adilabad and Nizambad respectively by the local police for trying to enforce a bandh to protest Asaduddin’s arrest even as Akbaruddin’s judicial remand in Adilabad is slated to end on Tuesday.
Bid to torch bus
    Driver of an APSRTC bus going to Emmiganur, suffered burn injuries when unidentified miscreants threw petrol into the bus and set it ablaze near Bahadurpura on Monday night. Police are suspecting that the incident has something to do with the arrest of Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi. At about 11.30 pm, a group of 15 unidentified miscreants stopped an RTC bus going to Emmiganur from Hyderabad near Kishanbagh X Roads in Bahadurpura. As soon as the driver, Krishnaiah slowed down, the miscreants threw petrol from the driver's window and set it ablaze. The driver suffered burns on his hands and face. Krishnaiah was rushed to a nearby hospital and his condition is out of danger. TNN