Summary:
All we expect is that such an incident is not repeated in the industrial area,” MASSIA president Kishore Rathi told TOI.About 60 large industrial houses and 20 small-scale industries were targeted by the rioters during the state bandh called by the Maratha community on August 9. The complaints were clubbed and seven offences were registered. The process of identifying the accused and arresting them is under way since then.Apart from breaking glasses and targeting vehicles, the rioters damaged computers, laptops and crucial documents, due to which crucial data of several companies was lost. Aurangabad: More than 200 key suspects involved in the August 9 Waluj industrial area violence are still at large, making things difficult for police who are supposed to file a chargesheet.Of the 400 suspects identified by police for their alleged involvement in the riots, 107 have bee arrested over the last five weeks.According to police, the rioters were caught on different CCTV cameras and the 200 suspects were directly involved in the violence and need to be arrested on priority.Several police teams who are involved in the investigation are running against time to meet the deadline to file the chargesheet in the seven offences that were registered following the violence.City police commissioner Chiranjeev Prasad said, “A list of the absconding suspects has been prepared based on technical and oral evidence of the arrested accused.”The police investigation into the violence has revealed that about 90% of the suspects involved in the attacks were either current or former employees of the industrial units at Waluj.The probe has revealed that discontent among the workers resulted into violence, catching police as well as the industrial houses by surprise.Senior police inspector Dnyaneshwar Sable of the Waluj MIDC police station said, “Though we have managed to prepare a list of about 400 rioters, arresting the suspects who played a key role in the riots by damaging properties running into several crores is our priority.”The officer said that a large number of identified accused are not locals and that they are missing from their homes.Marathwada Association of Small Scale Industries and Agriculture (MASSIA) has hailed police for appropriately responding to the post-incident scenario.“We appreciate police’s efforts in arresting the rioters who targeted the industrial houses..