New Delhi: Thefts of equipment and personal possessions were reported along the route of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s massive roadshow in New Delhi, according to copies of FIRs accessed by ThePrint.
Starting from Patel Chowk and continuing across central Delhi, the roadshow took place Monday afternoon, ahead of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) two-day national executive meet.
According to the FIRs, the alleged crimes occurred as the roadshow passed through Sansad Marg, also known as Parliament Street.
For instance, a male civilian complainant said that although he had caught hold of one of the individuals trying to steal his mobile phone, the individual had by then handed over the phone to an accomplice. The complainant told the police that the accomplice managed to use the crowd to evade but that he could identify the latter if given the chance.
The captured individual who allegedly stole the mobile phone was handed over to the police and identified as a 19-year-old hailing from Uttar Pradesh’s Manipuri. The case against him was subsequently registered under sections 379 (punishment for theft) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
In separate incidents that allegedly took place during the roadshow, a photojournalist with the Associated Press reported the theft of his iPhone near the Sansad Marg police station while a civilian photographer claimed that a camera lens belonging to him was stolen.
The civilian photographer claimed that “someone picked up Canon Camera ED Lens (70-200 mm 2.8)” from his “shoulder lens bag” while he was covering PM Modi’s roadshow.
Importantly, all three crimes allegedly took place around the same time — before or around 4 pm — on Sansad Marg, a stone’s throw away from the Parliament Street police station.
Meanwhile, PM Modi’s roadshow itself featured a sea of people on either side of the roads, ‘showering flower petals’ on his cavalcade. As a result, vehicular traffic in and around central Delhi was affected, with the traffic police announcing temporary closure of several roads, and outlining numerous other adjacent and arterial roads expected to witness “heavy volumes of traffic”.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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