Till now, around 250 persons were rounded up, but many were sent back home as their involvement in rioting was not found. Around 100 persons still in police custody had provided useful information on those involved in violence and arson and were absconding. 

 

A DCP-rank officer said that situation in the northeast Delhi had improved between Tuesday night and Wednesday and no untoward incident had been reported ever since. This had enabled authorities to spare police officials to conduct raids on Thursday to arrest the suspected rioters. 

 

These teams comprises officers and jawans of police stations concerned, apart from those from the Special Cell and Crime Branch.

 

"Though teams are conducting raids to catch hold of all those involved in arson and looting, we are in particular looking for an area councillor who is absconding ever since his role in the violence came to light," an Additional Commissioner of Police, who wished not to be named, told IANS.

 

An Assistant Commissioner of Police posted in northeast Delhi said that so far the death toll was over 30 in Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital and Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital and that the district police was busy getting the post-mortems on the bodies conducted and completing other formalities.

 

An officer in the rank of Joint Commissioner of Police said they were raiding the possible hideouts of Shahrukh, who was caught on camera while brandishing a firearm and pressing it to the chest of a security personnel. He had also allegedly fired several rounds in the air. 

 

A manhunt was also launched to arrest those responsible for the killing of Intelligence Bureau official Ankit Sharma, whose body was fished out from the Chandbagh drain. Ankit's father Ravinder Kumar Sharma had allegedly named the absconding councillor as one of the rioters responsible for his son's murder.

 

Several people living in violence-hit areas told the visiting IANS team on Thursday that police was otherwise making excuses of getting busy in maintaining peace in the affected areas but the promptness it was now showing had come only after the High Court's tough stand.