The Hindu : New Delhi News : Bikers storm CP at midnight; 45 held

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 25, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Bikers storm CP at midnight; 45 held

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: A battery of young motorcycle riders went on the rampage in Connaught Place here , damaging vehicles, injuring policemen and two television journalists. The police have arrested 45 of them on charges of rioting, assault and damaging public property.

It all began around midnight when the young riders zipped through the lanes of Connaught Place at high speed. It is learnt that several of them drove on the wrong carriageway and got into fights with passers-by. Around 2 a.m. when they neared Gole Market, a reporter of a Hindi television news channel, Umesh Gupta, and a cameraman, Irshad, spotted them and started filming them. The motorcyclists overpowered the duo and allegedly thrashed them.

The police, who were deployed in the area as part of arrangements for a Sikh guru’s birth anniversary celebrations on Monday, arrived at the scene and tried to intervene. The riders, however, started hurling stones at them and allegedly damaged some police vehicles.

Hunt

It took about an hour for the police to disperse the motorcyclists, after which a hunt was launched for those involved. In all, 16 of the accused were arrested by the Connaught Place police and 29 by the Mandir Marg police. They were produced before a local court that sent them to judicial custody.

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