Gujarat cops arrest four Italians for defacing metro before PM Modi's visit

The Ahmedabad Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) on Sunday arrested four Italian nationals for allegedly spray painting on the coach of a metro rail train parked at a depot, hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to inaugurate the first phase of metro rail project in Ahmedabad on September 30.

Although senior police officials had claimed that the incident was not a major security breach, due to Modi's visit, it had sent security officials into a tizzy. Police sources said that four foreign nationals were grilled by security agencies and Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) for hours before being handed over to DCB officials for further proceedings.

"We arrested the four foreign nationals at 3:30 PM today and will be producing them before the court on Monday," Assistant Commissioner of Police, DCB, Bharat Patel told DH. The police have identified the four as Cudini Gianluca Italiana, 24, Baldo Sacha Italiyana, 29, Starinieri Daniele Italiana, 21 and Capecchi Paolo Italiyana, 27, all residents of Italy.

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They have been booked for criminal trespassing, mischief causing damage, and under the prevention of damage to public property act. The DCB said in a press statement that 20 spray bottles had been recovered from the possession of Italian nationals. The FIR was based on a complaint filed by Jagatsinh Makwana, who works as a deputy general manager, security with Gujarat Metro Rail Corporation Ltd at Apparel Park depot in Gomtipur.

Makwana said in the FIR that on the morning of September 30, his general manager, Mehul Joshi, phoned him saying that he came to know about graffiti painted on the metro coach by some unknown people. Makwana checked the CCTV footage and found that the suspects defaced metro rail set-T-14 and T-15. They also painted "TAS" on the coach at 2:30 pm, which was hours before PM Modi was scheduled to arrive at Kalupur station, close to Gomtipur, from where he took the inaugural metro ride.

According to police, the Italian nationals allegedly did it for "fun" and consider it "artwork."