By Mahender Singh Manral
Six men, including Supreme Court lawyer and former Delhi BJP spokesperson Ashwini Upadhyay, have been arrested by the Delhi Police in connection with alleged inflammatory and anti-Muslim slogans at Jantar Mantar on Sunday.
Besides Upadhyay, Deepak Singh Hindu — president of Hindu Force, Vineet Kranti, Preet Singh and Vinod Sharma, who is the head of Sudarshan Vahini, have been arrested. JCP (New Delhi Range) Jaspal Singh has confirmed the arrest of the six men.
The accused were detained last night and Upadhyay was brought to the Connaught Place police station around 3 am for questioning. “All the accused have been detained in a late-night operation. As of now, legal work required for their arrest is underway. Upadhyay had reached the Connaught Place police station around 3 am and joined the investigation,” a senior police officer had said in the morning.
The Sunday protest march against “colonial-era laws” was called by Upadhyay, and the rally had hundreds of people in attendance. Purported videos of the event showed people shouting slogans threatening harm to Muslims.
The police said they have identified the detained men using footage from the event. ” Deepak Singh Hindu, who claims to be the president of an outfit called the Hindu Force, was detained from his house in Northeast Delhi’s Karawal Nagar. A team was stationed outside Deepak’s house and he was picked up around 12.40 am when he returned home.”
As first reported by the event Jantar Mantar did not have any police permission. On Monday morning, police had registered a case against unknown persons under IPC sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups) and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) as well as under the DDMA Act pertaining to violation of Covid-19 guidelines. ( Indian Express )