A day after a group of masked men armed with swords, rods, and sticks barged into a cafe in Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal, smashing furniture and glass, police arrested five suspects involved in the attack and later took them out in a public procession.
The attack, which was carried out late in the night and captured on CCTV, showed a large group of masked men armed with swords, rods, and sticks entering the Magic Spot Cafe in Misrod. In less than two minutes, the group vandalised the counter, glass panels, furniture, display units, and machines before fleeing.
A young man and woman present inside the cafe managed to escape just moments before the attackers entered.
The Misrod police took the arrested suspects in a procession through the main market, starting from the very cafe they vandalised.
Officers said the public parade was intended to send a clear message that acts of terror and violence will not be tolerated in the capital.
CCTV footage showed the men walking in a coordinated formation, carrying out the attack, and exiting without attempting to steal anything.
The police said that the preliminary investigation rules out robbery as a motive. "The attackers did not attempt to take anything. They came with the sole intention of vandalising the cafe. The entire act lasted less than two minutes," DCP Zone-2 Vivek Singh told NDTV. Police believe the attack was linked to a personal rivalry between two groups of students of a private college.
The trigger was an earlier clash on November 16 in Katara Hills, where a youth named Yogi was allegedly beaten by Abhishek Rajput and his friends. Abhishek is reportedly a friend of one of the cafe partners. This earlier dispute, for which an FIR had already been registered, appears to have escalated into Tuesday night's retaliation.
Cafe owner Saksham Giri had lodged a First Information Report (FIR) naming five individuals, including Yogi, Nikhil and Abhishek, along with several unidentified persons. Police have arrested two of the individuals named in the complaint and detained three more for questioning.
The cafe owner said he shared the CCTV footage widely across multiple groups, which helped in identifying several of the attackers. "I do not personally know any of the assailants, nor do I have any enmity with anyone," Saksham told NDTV.
"The attack caused a loss of nearly two and a half to three lakh rupees to my cafe," he added.
Given the seriousness of the crime, joint teams from Misrod, Baghsewania and Katara Hills police stations worked on the investigation. They scanned the CCTV footage from nearby areas, mapping possible escape routes and examining past altercations among the individuals involved.
Sources confirmed that police are also questioning the three partners of Magic Spot Cafe, as one of them is known to be associated with a person involved in the earlier clash. Officers say all possible angles – rivalry, retaliation, and any internal dispute – are being verified.
The case has been registered at Misrod police station, and several teams are working to trace the remaining suspects.
