A sleepy hamlet 60 km from Mumbai, Mhapoli is a name that most Mumbaikars would not recognise. However, reports in the media that Crime Branch officers have arrested a man — Rehan Asgavkar — from the village in connection with the recent Ghatkopar blast, has given it an uninvited notoriety.
Villagers are quick to deny that their home has anything to do with terrorists. In fact, they say that no one called Asgavkar ever lived there. But the rumour mill is alive. People from neighbouring villages have begun to make derogatory remarks.
The fear is that like Borivli village in Padgha, which housed Saquib Nachan, accused in all the recent blast cases, Mhapoli will become the next terrorist-hunting ground for the Mumbai police.
Irfan Mohammed Bhure, a villager, denies that anyone named Rehan Asgavkar ever resided in their village. He also denies that Mumbai or Thane crime branch officials had come to the village to make an arrest. Ubed Sikander Hube, the deputy sarpanch of the village, concurs.
In fact, villagers are anxious to present Mhapoli as secular. They say they supported victims of the 1970 and 1984 riots in Bhiwandi by providing them with alternate accommodation. Forty riot-affected families from Bhiwandi now reside here.
They add that while 55 houses have been rented out, the practise is to lease out homes to known people. Had the village had any anti- social elements, the villagers would have been the first to hand them over to the police, says another villager, Abdul.
The village falls under the jurisdiction of Ganeshpuri police station, Thane rural police. According to Assistant Police Inspector Laxman Rathod they have no information from Mumbai police on any arrests made in the village.
However, he added that they did
look into the matter after media reports. Rathod explained that the village
was too small for an arrest to go unnoticed. Assistant Commissioner of
Police Gawade of Bhiwandi Crime Branch also visited the village and found
no arrest had been made there. A senior Mumbai crime branch official confirmed
this.