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It’s a game of cat and mouse between the police and the villagers of Borivali, in Bhiwandi taluka, Thane district.
Almost all the 7,000-odd Muslims in the village have been too afraid to move out of their homes.
The village has come under the microscope of authorities following the sensational events that led to the arrest of villager Saquib Nachan for alleged involvement in the March 13 terrorist blast at Mulund.
Meanwhile, Padgha Police, under whose jurisdiction Borivali village falls, seem in turn to be wary of entering the village
An officer with the Mumbai Crime Branch said that after March 27, when a village mob thwarted Nachan’s arrest, police are thinking twice about entering Borivali village without adequate force.
He, however, played down the police fear by saying that they just didn’t want untoward incidents during mob scenes.
Whatever the reason, police have resorted to waiting for ‘wanted’ villagers to leave home ground, before moving in for the kill and taking them in. They have drawn up a list of 15 villagers, who allegedly prevented police from arresting Nachan.
Soban Mulla, one of these 15 absconders, said, “They haven’t come to arrest me yet, but I am not stepping out of my house.”
However, the game of attrition took a turn on April 15 when software professional Atif Mulla (24) was picked up by police when he went to Bandra-Kurla for a job interview.
Crime Branch officers insisted that Atif was linked to the Mulund bomb blast, which killed 11 and injured more than 50.
Sub-Inspector SP Gaware, of the Padgha police, has denied that police are afraid of entering the village.
He claimed that all 15 wanted men were actually absconding away from the village. “The day we learn they are back, we will arrest them immediately,” he said.
However, such claims appear weak after Padgha police detained six other villagers only when they reached a checkpoint outside the village a fortnight ago. They had been travelling to work in a jeep.
The game of fear on both sides began on March 27, when Senior Inspector Pradeep Sharma and Sub-Inspector Daya Nayak led a team of Criminal Intelligence Unit officers to Borivali to arrest Nachan.
Police were mobbed and heckled and in the confusion Nachan escaped.
However, two days later, Sharma and Nayak led a police team that shot dead three Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists for involvement in recent city blasts.
The villagers then grew afraid that Nachan’s fate would be the same.
Nachan’s father filed a petition in the Bombay High Court saying his son wanted to surrender for fear of being killed in an encounter. Nachan surrendered last Thursday.
Police have alleged that the area has become a happy hunting ground for activists of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) who are looking for recruits.
A Crime Branch officer said, “The village has also become a hideout for SIMI loyalists and antisocial elements.”
Police also alleged that the three slain LeT terrorists, gunned down near Jogeshwari on March 29, lived at Borivali village and Padgha for a while.
A Crime Branch officer said, “We have sufficient proof against the arrested accused to prove their involvement in the blast.”
However, villager Nasir Mulla said,
“We are a law-abiding people and even during the 1992-93 riots there was
never any trouble at Borivali.”
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