After arresting 45 persons and remanding them in judicial custody on Sunday, of the total 56 identified accused persons in the Secunderabad railway station violence against the Centre’s Agnipath scheme, the Secunderabad Government Railway Police on Wednesday arrested 10 more persons.
All of them were identified as Army job aspirants.
The accused persons, facing 14 charges including attempt to murder, damaging Railway property among others, were produced before the Railway Judicial Magistrate Court at Bhoiguda briefly after medical tests at Gandhi Hospital.
They were later remanded in judicial custody at Chanchalguda prison.
According to sources, the latest arrests include at least five administrators of the WhatsApp groups that were used to plan and execute the violence on June 17. Others, arrested based on CCTV footage and technical evidence, were those directly mobilising youths and initiated the arson.
Multiple video clips of the Friday violence at Secunderabad railway station shot on cellphone cameras by the accused persons were available on Wednesday.
One of them showed an accused person, reportedly arrested from Adilabad district, along with his mates throwing bricks on a glass elevator and breaking window glasses of AC coaches.
He was visibly seen setting the rexin berths of one of the coaches of Rajkot-Secunderabad-Darbhanga Express on fire, even as one of his accompaniers questioned: “Why burn and damage so much when you wanted to stop the trains and already did?”
The other person was heard saying: “Only then will we get our justice. Four rallies were over and results too not declared.”
Coaching centres under scanner
Exploring the alleged role of defence coaching centre owners and their ‘vested interests’ in the violence to mount pressure on the government, the police are scanning various centres.
As per sources, Avula Subba Rao, director of ASR Sai Defence Academy at Narsaraopet in Andhra Pradesh, was being questioned by officials. Several supporting materials such as hard disks, application and admission details of students enrolled in coaching programmes were gathered from his various centres.
Another centre owner from Karimnagar who is facing similar allegations was also being questioned.
