On Sunday, August 27, a police team from the DN Nagar Police Station in Mumbai was attacked by a mob from the Irani Basti area. The Police team was attacked as it reached the Basti in the Ambivali region to arrest history-sheeter Firoz Fayyaz Khan who has 35 criminal cases registered against him. The mob pelted stones at the team forcing it to call for the backup team who reached the spot immediately to arrest the accused.
According to the reports, accused Firoz Khan has 35 criminal cases recorded in his name, and the Police were on the lookout for the criminal after he recently duped a 21-year-old man for Rs 1 lakh. The entire video of the attack on the police team was recorded on the CCTV camera.
The additional police team arrived in a school minibus and eventually succeeded in apprehending the accused from the notorious area to the city. The police were looking for Firoz Fayyaz Khan, 62, after seeing him in CCTV footage of an incident that had previously been reported to them.
The crime took place on August 10, around 1 PM, when three persons approached a 21-year-old man outside a bank near Azad Nagar metro station, claiming to be police officers. They claimed they suspected him of having drugs in his suitcase and wanted to investigate. During the ‘check,’ one of the men stole Rs 1 lakh that the young man had just withdrawn from the bank account of his employer.
An officer from DN Nagar Police Station talked to Hindustan Times and confirmed the incident. “When we saw the CCTV footage of the incident, we could identify Khan as one of the three accused. We started asking his whereabouts from our informers and were told that he had been in Ambivali for some time,” he said.
The officer said that Khan had multiple cases filed against him at several police stations in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, and Thane.
On Sunday, Rakesh Pawar, an assistant police inspector and criminal detecting officer with the DN Nagar police, received information about Khan’s movements near Ambivali railway station.
A team of investigation officers was dispatched to Ambivali under the supervision of Shashikant Mane, Assistant Commissioner of Police for DN Nagar division, Milind Kurde, senior inspector, and Wahid Pathan, police inspector (crime).
“As the area is known to be hostile towards policemen, one woman officer was planted there in a burkha to keep us updated about the movements of the accused. Khan was seen getting a shave in a salon where he was nabbed by policemen in plainclothes. As news about his apprehension spread among the locals, some of them came towards our vehicle and started pelting stones at us,” the officer added.
He further stated that two police officers suffered injuries in the stone-pelting incident, which completely destroyed the vehicle.
Firoz Khan later admitted to his involvement in the crime after being brought to the police station.
“During Khan’s interrogation, we also got to know that he was involved in another recent crime of a similar nature registered with the Vile Parle police station. His arrest will lead to solving many crimes in various police stations under Mumbai Police Commissionerate,” the officer said.
This is not the first incident when the police officers have been attacked by a mob in the Irani Basti area. Earlier, in the year 2019, the police team was attacked, and pelted with stones and bottles when it reached the area to nab four wanted thieves. Jafar Ali Syed was then taken into custody.
Further, in April 2017, when police went into Irani Basti to apprehend a chain snatcher, a mob of 25 people attacked them and attempted to set one of them on fire by throwing kerosene at him.