Puri: The Town Police on Sunday arrested 15 more persons for their alleged involvement in the violent protests in Puri on October 3. With this, the total number of the arrested persons went up to 38.
As informed by the SP (Puri) Sarthak Sarangi, the Town Police had registered cases against the 15 arrested persons on the basis of the CCTV footage.
Earlier, 12 persons were arrested by the Simhadwara Police on Saturday while the Town Police had arrested 11 persons the previous day.
The Simhadwara Police had registered nine cases and the Town Police six cases after some hooligans went on the rampage and ransacked the assets of Shree Jagannath Temple Administration (SJTA) and some government offices.
Meanwhile, the Puri SP suspended five policemen, including four constables and one havildar, for dereliction of duty during the attack on the house of the Puri MLA Maheswar Mohanty on October 4.
The Jagannath Sena had given the Puri bandh call on October 3, protesting against the dhadi darshan (queue system) introduced by the SJTA on the directive of the Supreme Court.
The bandh took a violent turn after the police picked up its convener Priyadarshan Patnaik.