New Delhi: The Delhi Police has arrested Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member Ashwini Upadhyay and five others in connection with alleged inflammatory slogans raised against Muslims at an event at Jantar Mantar on 8 August, Joint Commissioner of Police, New Delhi, Jaspal Singh confirmed to ThePrint.
Upadhyay, a Supreme Court lawyer and former Delhi BJP spokesperson, and Preet Singh, director of a body called Save India Foundation, have been arrested as organisers of the event, which was held under the former’s ‘Bharat Jodo (unite) Movement’ against “colonial era laws”.
Four others persons — Deepak Singh (president of outfit Hindu Force), Vinod Sharma (member of a body called Sudarshan Vahini), and individuals Deepak (one name only) and Vineet Kranti — have also been arrested, said the sources.
Searches are ongoing for two others Pinky Bhaiya (member of Hindu Raksha Dal, who had taken responsibility for JNU violence) and an individual named Uttam Malik.
The arrests came hours after the two organisers and others were detained. The other two had been identified.
Speaking about the detentions earlier in the day, a senior police officer told ThePrint on condition of anonymity: “Apart from the two organisers, six other people have been identified and detained so far in the case… We have taken records of all the videos showing individuals raising inflammatory slogans.”
After videos from the gathering started circulating on social media Monday, Upadhyay denied involvement and knowledge of the people who raised the alleged slogans.
“I don’t know these people seen in the videos, have never seen them before nor called them to the event. Till the time I was there, these men weren’t seen. If these videos were made after I left then that means that they were made to disrepute our movement,” Upadhyay said in a video released on Twitter.
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What is the case?
On Sunday, purported videos from the event started circulating on social media, showing groups of men raising ‘anti-Muslim’ slogans.
In one video, the slogan “Hindustan mein rehna hoga toh ‘Jai Shree Ram’ kehna hoga (if you want to live in India, you must chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’)” could be heard. In another, people could be heard saying, “Muslims will be slaughtered, they will shout ‘Jai Shree Ram’.”
The Delhi Police has said that permission for the event hadn’t been granted.
It registered an FIR in the matter Monday under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code, apart from section 51 of Disaster Management Act for violation of Covid-19 guidelines.
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