Delhi Police has arrested Sushil Tiwari, head of an outfit called the Hindu Army, in connection with the August 8 event at Jantar Mantar where anti-Muslim slogans were raised.
Police said Tiwari, 40, lives in Lucknow and was apprehended from his house late Friday night before being brought to Delhi. Police said that apart from the slogans, he allegedly mobilised people for the event.
So far, police have arrested seven men in connection with the case, including former Delhi BJP spokesperson Ashwini Upadhyay. Upadhyay, also a Supreme Court lawyer, was granted bail by a Delhi court on August 12.
A senior police officer from the New Delhi district said, “We identified Tiwari based on videos of the event on social media and on local enquiry. We found he was in Lucknow and sent a team there to arrest him.”
Tiwari also works as a travel agent and often comes to Delhi for work. “He received an invite to the event on a WhatsApp group and allegedly came to Jantar Mantar to join the other accused,” said an officer.
On August 10, Deepak Singh Hindu, head of an outfit called the Hindu Force, was arrested along with Preet Singh, Vinod Sharma, Deepak Kumar, and Vineet Bajpai Kranti. They are still in police custody. Police said these men were also members of the WhatsApp group that was created to organise the event and allegedly mobilise people for the sloganeering.
DCP (New Delhi district) Deepak Yadav had earlier told The Indian Express that they have documents that purportedly show Upadhyay and Preet Singh, head of an outfit called Save India, knew each other. “We have found that Upadhyay had mentioned Preet Singh’s name in his application for organising the event. Further investigations are on,” he had said.
Police said they have also identified two others in connection with the sloganeering – Pinky Chaudhary, who had earlier taken responsibility for the January 2020 violence at JNU, and one Uttam Malik, who claims to be a follower of Dasna Devi temple’s head priest Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati.
This story first appeared on indianexpress.com