On Thursday, Baba Biryani owner Mukhtar Baba who was arrested for funding ‘blasphemy’ riots in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur district confessed to the SIT that he along with his builder friends wanted to get hold of Chandreshwar Hata, the main area where stone-pelting erupted on June 3. During the interrogation, he also agreed that he and his builder friends had funded the violence to threaten the residents of Chandreshwar Hata and force them to vacate the property.
According to the reports, the investigating officers attained a video clip that showed people covered with white handkerchiefs directing a particular group towards the Hata. Mukhtar Baba on June 23 confirmed that those were his men and that they had planned the violence in his restaurant. He added that his builder friends had also joined the planning as they wanted the residents of Chandreshwar Hata to vacate the property. “The main target of violence in the New Road area was the Chandreshwar Hata area”, he said.
SIT President DCP South Sanjeev Tyagi along with Chief Investigator ACP Tripurari Pandey and other security agency officers interrogated Mukhtar Baba at Colonelganj police station on Wednesday. During the investigation, Mukhtar Baba also revealed all the names of his builder friends who were involved in the planning of the violence and had funded it. One of the names is Mohammad Wasi. According to the investigating officers, these builders including Mohammad Wasi will be arrested next.
Mukhtar Baba further said that the main accused Hayat Zafar Hashmi and his NGO named MMA Jauhar Fans Association were funded with Rs 5 lakhs for escalating the violence. “Of Rs 5 lakh, Rs 2 lakh were given in cash on June 1”, Mukhtar Baba stated on Thursday. Earlier on Wednesday, he had said that the stone pelters were offered Rs 500-1000 each to indulge in violence. He also revealed that the entire plan to stoke communal violence in the streets of Kanpur was hatched at his shop.
Notably, on June 21, the Kanpur Police had nabbed Mukhtar Baba who was absconding since June 3. He had reportedly crowdfunded the violence and given huge amounts of money to Zafar Hayat Hashmi, the prime accused in the case. Reports mention that Mukhtar Baba, on the day of violence had also fed the rioters and stone-pelters with Biryani. However, his son Mahmood while talking to OpIndia refused to accept the claims.
Some of the local leaders meanwhile reported that Baba Biryani is illegally built on land that actually belongs to a temple and that Mukhtar and his accomplices had been plotting violence for a long time to maintain their illegal occupation. Mukhtar Baba who comes from a very ordinary family has become rich and influential in the area due to this restaurant. According to the government records, the land on which the restaurant stands today belongs to the Ram-Janki temple. Mukhtar Baba’s father had a puncture repairing shop in 1968 on the same land.
The fact surfaced when the state administration was tracing all the illegal properties owned by the under the Enemy Property Act. Ram Janki Trust property was first gifted by a Pakistani Aabid Rehman to Mukhtar Baba’s mother who by will transferred it to her son. The main temple and 18 other Hindu shops were razed down to establish the present Biryani restaurant.
Kanpur Violence
Days after BJP Spokeswoman Nupur Sharma received death threats for allegedly committing ‘blasphemy’ against Prophet Muhammad, severe violence erupted in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur district with Islamists giving a call for a shutdown in the area to protest against Sharma. The protest turned violent as hundreds of Islamists joined the protest after the Friday prayers and began pelting stones at the Police and the civilians.
The Police in the case has arrested more than 40 miscreants and has razed down illegal properties owned by prime accused Hayat Zafar Hashmi and his associates. The Police also found incriminating chats from Hashmi’s phone and probed his bank accounts to trace the funds received from the Gulf countries to allegedly back the violence. So far 7 FIRs have been registered and around 1000 unidentified persons have been booked in the case.