Police use drones for surveillance in Trilokpuri

For the first time, the Delhi Police used a drone in a riot situation on Tuesday, searching for bricks to be used for stone-pelting and weapons on terraces of buildings in east Delhi’s Trilokpuri locality.

The small drone, fitted with a camera at the bottom, flew over the terraces of buildings in eight blocks of Trilokpuri. 

“It is unprecedented that we used a drone in a riot situation. This is to ensure that there is no indiscriminate checking of people’s houses for bricks and weapons,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Eastern Range) Sanjay Beniwal. “We selected the houses that needed to physically checked after the drone showed bricks on the terraces of some of them,” he added. 

Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Deepak Mishra was also present during the operation. About 70 bags filled with bricks were seized from the buildings, while the police also found several knives, beer bottles and daggers. An investigating officer said most of the bricks were found in Block-20 of Trilokpuri, where the clashes had started.

The police also arrested five “bad characters” of Trilokpuri. The police said they recovered a sword from the residence of Gaurav, one such bad character, in Trilokpuri.

“Swords, knives and bricks were found from the houses of the other bad characters,” said another police officer, adding that a total of 49 people have been arrested in connection with the riots.

Meanwhile, the police relaxed a prohibitory order issued under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPc) banning “unlawful assembly” of five or more people at Trilokpuri from 1 pm to 5 pm on Tuesday. 

Locals came out to shop for essentials, while the time was also utilised by municipal corporation workers to remove bricks scattered on the roads. 

Amrita Sachan, 44, said she was running out of groceries at home. “When the violence broke out, all the markets in this colony were closed. I had to borrow vegetables from my neighbours. That is what most of us were doing,” she said.

The prohibitory orders were issued after Deepawali in view of the clashes between two communities. 

On Monday, police had relaxed the order for an hour, allowing the locals to buy groceries and other household items. If peace persisted in Trilokpuri, the police might further relax the prohibitory order from late morning till evening on Wednesday.

“It is a sign of life returning to normalcy,” said a senior police officer, adding that there was no incident of violence on Monday night and Tuesday morning.