Mumbai: Family members of murder accused wreak havoc on WEH, bite cops

Cops escort Tabrez and Salim outside the Dindoshi court. Their family members demand to meet them, but cops refuse

Family members of two murder accused on Tuesday wreaked havoc outside the Dindoshi court and on the Western Express Highway, after not being allowed to meet the duo. While a majority managed to escape, the police have arrested four of them for the incident.

According to police sources, a team of five cops were bringing one Tabrez Khan, 26, and Salim Siddique, 20, who have been accused in the murder of security guard Shoaib Khan, 50, from the Taloja jail to the Dindoshi sessions court. The team included PSI Govind Arlekar, constable Kelgendre, Aagwane, Chendge and women constable Surve.

Angered by the denial, the relatives block the police van and assault cops. The van somehow manages to leave from the court

The court proceedings were completed without a glitch and around 2 pm, more than 16 family members, including several women, tried to meet the accused duo. However, they were disallowed by cops from doing to. This angered them, and they blocked the van with their bikes and began abusing the police.

Blocked again
Just then, PSI Prashant Hule from the Sakinaka police station intervened and managed to disperse the angry crowd of relatives to make way for the police van. The family then saw the accused duo hitting their heads inside the van; Salim even hit two of the constables, biting one and injuring another's lip. This made the family members more aggressive and they opened the doors of the vehicle. PSI Arlekar, who had caught hold of the accused, suffered some more blows from the relatives.

The mob blocks the van on WEH, too, and relentlessly assaults cops, before being caught. Illustration/Uday Mohite

Somehow, the van managed to escape, but the relatives were still chasing it. They later blocked it on the Western Express Highway. There, they not only assaulted the team of cops, with one of them even biting PSI Hule and breaking his mobile phone, while he was helping in clearing the way for the van. The others hit and bit PSI Arlekar and constables Aagwne and Chendge.

Additional team arrives
In the meantime, one of the cops in the van called for reinforcements. Immediately, a team from Vanrai police station rushed to the spot for help. Seeing the additional cops, most of the family members escaped from the spot. The cops still managed to catch four of them, according to a policeman from Vanrai police station. The relatives, identified as Firdos Firoz Khan 23, Danish Firoz Khan, 19, Noor Banu Khan, 28, and Shabana Khan, 25, all of whom are residents of Best Nagar in Aarey colony.

Senior police inspector Rajaram Vhanmane confirmed the incident, and added that the four arrested accused have been booked under sections 353, 332, 341, 143, 146, 427, 333, 224, 149 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code. They were produced in court on Wednesday and remanded in police custody. Vhanmane said they'll catch hold of the absconding accused with the help of the arrested ones.

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