The Uttarakhand Police on Thursday arrested Abdul Moeed, a co-accused in the February 8 violence that erupted in Haldwani city, The Times of India reported.

Moeed is the son of Abdul Malik, the key accused in the case. Malik was arrested in Delhi on February 24.

Malik, however, has maintained that he was not in Haldwani the day the violence broke out. He has told Uttarakhand’s director-general of police in a letter that he was in Delhi, Noida and Faridabad on February 7 and February 8, meeting lawyers, politicians and his daughter.

Six persons were killed in the violence that broke out after the Haldwani municipal corporation demolished a mosque and a madrasa in the Banbhoolpura locality on February 8, claiming that they were built illegally on government land – even though the matter was underway in the Uttarakhand High Court. A mob had allegedly burnt down a police station and government and private vehicles.

The police have so far arrested 84 persons who were allegedly part of the mob, The Hindu reported.

Six special police teams have been formed to arrest the accused in the case. The teams are raiding locations including in Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, Prahlad Narayan Meena, Nainital’s senior superintendent of police, told the newspaper.

Moeed and his father, who ran the mosque and madrasa, are among those booked under Section 15 of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and 12 sections of the Indian Penal Code, including attempt to murder, rioting and dacoity. The Uttarakhand Prevention of Defacement of Public Property Act, 2003, and the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1932, have also been invoked in the first information report.

A sessions court in Uttarakhand on February 25 sent Malik to police custody for 10 days.

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