Hyderabad: Data erased from mobiles, cops in a fix to nail accused

HYDERABAD: Retrieving evidence from the seized cell phones of accused in the arson case over Agnipath protest has become a tough task for railway police as many have either deleted the data or uninstalled the social media apps.
So far, railway police have arrested 60 for violence at the Secunderabad railway station on June 17. Majority of them were arrested on June 17 and 18 from in and around Secunderabad railway station and their mobiles were seized.
From the videos in the mobiles of the accused, CCTV footage at the station and TV channel footage, police zeroed in on the remaining accused, including Pruthviraj and Santosh, who set ablaze a train.Subsequently, Avula Subba Rao and three of his associates including Malla Reddy, Beesi Reddy and Shiva Kumar were arrested.
Subba Rao (47), director of Sai Defence Academy, who was listed as accused number 64 in the case, has been mentioned as the main conspirator in the remand report furnished before the court on June 25 after his arrest.
“Rao supported the agitation and also provided logistics. He provoked the army exam candidates and knew about the vandalism that was going to take place on June 17. He motivated his supporters to pull more persons to face the police and damage railway properties,” police stated in the remand report.While police have video evidence against those who damaged railway property, they need evidence linking alleged conspirators such as Subba Rao, who were not present in the vicinity of the railway station during the violence, to prove that they had incited aspirants.
“Several accused including the conspirators have deleted the data in their phones, uninstalled WhatsApp and cleared the backup. Their cell phones are being sent to FSL to retrieval of data. We also have to write to WhatsApp to get the details,” a railway police official said.
Meanwhile, police have moved petitions seeking custody of the arrested accused and they are being heard.