July 14: The crime branch of Mumbai police has initiated an investigation into the desecration of Dr B R Ambedkar's bust at Matoshri Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar on Friday.

According to senior officers there is proof that some residents of the colony garlanded the bust with chappals. The crime branch officers also claimed that the gathering of mob and the stone pelting at the police was planned well in advance. A team of 25 crime branch officers including three senior inspectors, five inspectors with some sub-inspectors, has launched a full-fledged investigation into the case. So far, the team has managed to list four names allegedly behind the whole tragedy.

``Surprisingly, only those four are absconding from the colony since Friday. But with every move, we are getting confirmed information about the involvement of these four men,'' a crime branch senior inspector told Express Newsline on condition of anonymity. He, however, refused to disclose the names stating it would alert the culprits, thus hampering the investigations. ``We are 200 per cent sure that it is an inside job. Some of their own men have done it. Our duty is to find out who provoked them to do this and the possible reasons behind the desecration. We are also listing all possible people who may benefit from the whole episode even in a remotest sense,'' the senior PI said.

The officers have started recording statements of the Ramabai colony residents since last evening. They waited for the funeral to end and protestors from outside to leave the city. To avoid the danger of the witnesses turning hostile in the court, the team is taking special precautions while recording statements.``The statements recorded by us have no standing in courts. People always claim they issued statements under our pressure. So we will be using provisions of section 164 of Criminal Procedure Code, under which the statements are recorded in front of a metropolitan magistrate. Now the person cannot go back on his words in court. We believe this will help to getting them convicted,'' the senior inspector told on Monday.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.