The Uttar Pradesh Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) on Thursday submitted chargesheets in six cases related to the Sambhal violence that took place in November last year, alleging that Shariq Satha, who is believed to be living in the UAE, had orchestrated the unrest, which resulted in the deaths of five people and injuries to 29 police personnel.
The 4,000-page chargesheet, submitted in court, named 79 accused, all of whom are currently lodged in jail, and stated that Satha, a native of Sambhal, had long been involved in criminal activities, including running a car theft gang that reportedly stole 300 vehicles from Delhi-NCR.
According to the chargesheet, Satha had links with fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim and Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI and had fled the country using a fake passport, while the police claimed that their investigation revealed his direct role in instigating the violence.
The SIT alleged that evidence recovered from the site of the violence, including foreign-made cartridges and unusual financial transactions in the district, pointed to a larger conspiracy, and it named Samajwadi Party MP Ziaur Rahman Barq and local MLA Iqbal Mahmood’s son Suhail Iqbal among those implicated in the case.
The chargesheet, which was filed before the court, mentioned that the violence had erupted on November 24 last year during a court-ordered Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) survey of the 500-year-old Shahi Jama Masjid, following claims that the mosque was built on the ruins of a Hindu temple allegedly demolished during the Mughal era.
The police alleged that bullets manufactured in Pakistan and the US were recovered from the site, and they indicated that a supplementary chargesheet would be filed as further investigation progresses.
With a total of 12 FIRs registered in connection with the violence, the SIT is probing all aspects of the case, while the police maintain that their findings substantiate their claims regarding Satha’s role in orchestrating the unrest and mobilising individuals to participate in the violence.