Bristy Begum went to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court in the old part of the city from Manik Nagar in Jatrabari to catch a glimpse of her husband Fazlur Rahman.

Fazlur, 40, who used to work as a manager at a courier service, was arrested by police early yesterday.

"Police arrested my husband from near our residence around 1:00am. I came to the court to see my husband. I am sitting here for over six hours, but could not find him," Bristy told The Daily Star yesterday afternoon.

When this correspondent met her, a seemingly distressed Bristy, 30, along with her child Fariha, 5, and two relatives, was waiting in front of the CMM court.

Failing to meet Fazlur, the only earning member of the four-member family, she returned home after 5:30pm.

"My husband is innocent. He did not engage in any violent activities, yet police arrested him," she said.

One of her relatives said, "Police checked Fazlur's cell phone and found a video clip of the clashes. This is why they arrested him."

Later in the day, Fazlur was sent to jail after police produced him before the court in a violence case filed with Jatrabari Police Station.

Fazlur was among the 413 arrestees produced before the CMM court yesterday in cases filed centring the recent violence in the city.

Yesterday, the court premises were full of relatives of the arrestees.

One of them was 21-year-old Joly.

Carrying her son Osman, she came to the court from Kunipara to find her husband Tuhin around noon.

She said Tuhin drove an auto-rickshaw for a living.

"Police arrested him from our residence on Tuesday noon. He did not participate in any movement," Joly claimed.

"My 18-month-old son is ill. He is coughing now. Despite this, I rushed to the court to see my husband," she said.

Meanwhile, Joy, 23, was the only son of Jhorna Begum, 40. He was picked up by police from their Kunipara residence.

"Police barged in without knocking. Joy was taking a shower at the time. They didn't even give him enough time before taking him away," Jhorna claimed.

She said she waited for four hours in a police station to see if her son was there. From there, she came to the court after someone told him she might find Joy there.

Even after waiting for hours, she could not trace her son.

Also, rickshaw-puller Baset was arrested by Jatrabari police early yesterday when he was just returning to his residence after parking his three-wheeler at a garage.

His wife Aklima Begum said, "At 10:00am, I arrived at the court to find my husband. It's almost 5:00pm, I still could not find him. I spoke to a lawyer and he said my husband may be released before sunset as he was not arrested in any violence cases."

"With my husband's meagre income, we cannot even manage one square meal a day at times. And now we don't even have that," said the mother of three children.