Delhi Police Special Cell probing the larger conspiracy behind the North-East Delhi violence, in its report to the court has said that one of the accused in the case had met fugitive Zakir Naik.
A copy of the report has quoted passport details of one of the accused Khalid Saifi. "The passport and travel details of the accused confirm that accused Khalid travelled outside India and met persons including fugitive Zakir Naik in order to get support for spreading his agenda", reads the Delhi Police status report submitted in the month of June.
Delhi police has further stated, "Evidences have been collected from various WhatsApp groups, which were active during the above said protests and riots in order to update the ground reports and gave directions to the protesters/riots".
According to sources, police is now searching whether Naik has any link with violence or not.
Although more than 1,000 suspects have been arrested by the police team, but efforts are on to identify the key conspirators. Their apprehension is crucial in finding out the missing links of the larger conspiracy.
Accused Ishrat Jahan got funds from a suspicious route through her relative residing in Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh) and other connected persons residing in Maharashtra and were unable to move due to COVID-19 lockdown.
Examination of these connected persons is very crucial in order to investigate illegal funding. In the same way, accused Khalid got suspicious funds through an NRI account of a person, who is serving in Singapore, in the account of an NGO which he is running in partnership with his friend. The examination of NGO partner of Khalid could not be completed as in the midway of examination, he has been quarantined by the local authority in Meerut as COVID-19 suspect. Apart from this, investigation with respect to the fundraiser, who is in Singapore, is under way.
Due to some technical fault, relevant data from the mobile phone of accused Khalid could not recover, which are important for the purpose of investigation. However, due to COVID-19 lockdown, expert technician could not be available. Now, efforts would be made to get it opened through authorized service station so that data could be extracted and examined to complete the chain of investigation.
( With inputs from ANI )