Bulldozer will roll if needed, will recover cost of Nagpur violence damage from rioters: Fadnavis

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday said that “the bulldozer would roll if necessary” when he was asked if perpetrators of Nagpur violence would face “Uttar Pradesh-style” action.

Addressing the media, he said the government would recover the cost of property damaged during the violence from rioters, and if they failed to compensate, their properties would be seized and sold to recover the losses.

Replying to a query about whether “bulldozer action” will be initiated against rioters in Nagpur on the lines of Uttar Pradesh, Fadnavis said, “The Maharashtra Government has its own style of working....bulldozer will roll when necessary.”

“Wherever wrong things happen, they will be crushed. Nobody (perpetrators) will be spared,” the Maharashtra CM said while emphasising that strict action would be taken against those who had attacked police officers during the unrest.

Fadnavis further said that while the incident could not be termed as an “intelligence failure”, the gathering of intel could have been better. The police would be alert and we won’t tolerate any kind of disturbance,” he said.

The CM further said that after analysing CCTV footage and video recordings, 104 individuals have been identified so far, while action has been initiated against 92 persons, including 12 minors. Besides, 68 social media posts that aggravated the situation have also been identified and deleted.

Govt biased against one community: Cong

• Maharashtra Congress leader Manikrao Thakare on Saturday accused the Mahayuti government of being biased against a particular community and claimed that the police did not allow his party's “fact-finding” committee to visit violence-hit areas in Nagpur.
• Thakare said the government had failed to protect its citizens while its ministers routinely targeted a particular community and spread hate. Action should be taken not only against those involved in arson and violence, but also the instigators, he said.

The Maharashtra Chief Minister also announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to Nagpur on March 30 would proceed as planned, unaffected by the violence.

He noted that the situation in Nagpur was calm now, and efforts were underway to relax the curfew imposed in certain areas. “Riots only broke out in parts of the city, while 80 per cent of Nagpur was not impacted,” he added.

Fadnavis said the distribution of compensation for victims would begin soon

Fadnavis further said that it was too early to comment on a foreign or Bangladeshi link to the riots as the probe was underway. “However, the Malegaon connection can be seen as one of the accused belongs to a political party from,” he said without naming Minority Democratic Party leader Fahim Khan, who has been booked for sedition.

The CM admitted that rioters had thrown stones at female police constables, but the purported incident of rioters behaving indecently with a female constable didn't take place.

Man hurt in March 17 violence dies

• A 40-year-old man, who sustained injuries in the Nagpur violence, died while undergoing treatment at a hospital on Saturday.
• A hospital official said Irfan Ansari, who had been admitted with grievous wounds, died at 1.20 pm at the Indira Gandhi Government Medical College & Hospital (IGGMCH).