12 villagers held for assaulting policemen

Mumbai: Navi Mumbai NRI police on Wednesday arrested 12 villagers for their alleged involvement in Tuesday’s assault on four Mumbai police special branch officials who had visited the village to nab a Bangladeshi couple staying there illegally. Locals assaulted the policemen suspecting them to be thieves in the guise of police.

A group of nearly 50 residents of Kombadbhuje village, Navi Mumbai, tied up the four officials from Mumbai police’s special branch (SB), including a woman police constable Mangal Urankar (40) and then assaulted them with cricket bats and sticks at around 4 am on Tuesday. Upon receiving an alert, the local police team reached the spot in 20 minutes to rescue the SB officials dressed in civilian clothes. A police source said that the villagers thought the four were “fake police”.

Senior PI of NRI police station, Shekhar Bagade, said, “As per the victims’ complaint, we have arrested 12 villagers who were allegedly involved in beating up the police officials. Among them, a few were drunk and started telling others that the officials were impostors. The villagers trusted them. We produced the accused in court on Wednesday and the court has remanded them to police custody for the next four days. We will interrogate them further and more arrests are possible in the case”.

Three out of the four SB officers are still under treatment for their injuries at MGM Hospital. Acting on the victims’ complaint, Navi Mumbai’s NRI police station registered a case against 50-odd residents of Kombadbhuje village for beating up police officials and obstructing them from performing their duty.

According to Navi Mumbai police officials, at midnight on Tuesday, a team of six Mumbai CID police officials of the special branch arrested three Bangladeshi nationals near Mankhurd highway. Upon interrogation, the Bangladeshi nationals disclosed residential details of other friends who were staying illegally in Kombadbhuje village.