The Coimbatore District Police on Monday arrested three members of the Popular Front of India (PFI) on charges of damaging vehicles belonging to the BJP and Hindu Munnani functionaries in Pollachi on September 22 night.
The arrested have been identified as J. Mohammed Rafeeq (26), area secretary of PFI in Pollachi, I. Malik alias Sadiq Basha (32) and A. Rameez Raja (36), all hailing from Pollachi.
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The police said that the trio was involved in the damages caused to five vehicles belonging to local functionaries of the BJP and Hindu Munnani at Kumaran Nagar on the night of September 22. The accused damaged windscreens, door windows of vehicles and attempted to set one of them ablaze after pouring fuel on it.
Coimbatore District Superintendent of Police V. Badrinarayanan had formed seven special teams under supervision of Deputy Superintendent of Police (Pollachi) N. Deepa Sujitha to nab the accused. The special teams examined visuals from over 250 surveillance cameras and checked call data records of more than 500 numbers to identify the accused, the police said.
The accused were arrested for offences under Section 435 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to cause damage to amount of one hundred or (in case of agricultural produce) ten rupees) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 3 (i) (commits mischief by doing any act in respect of any [property] and thereby causes damage or loss to such [property] to the amount of one hundred rupees or upwards) of the Tamil Nadu Public Property Prevention of Damage and Loss Act.
