New Delhi: A 29-year-old man who allegedly climbed one of the tombs of the Red Fort during the violence in the national capital on Republic day has been arrested. He has been identified as Jaspreet Singh. He is one of the associates of Maninder Singh, who was arrested last Tuesday. The latter was nabbed for allegedly swinging swords with the intent of ‘motivating’ and ‘energising’ the protesters at the historic Red Fort. Jaspreet is a resident of Swaroop Nagar in northwest Delhi. He was arrested by a Crime Branch team on Saturday.
Thousands of protesters had clashed with the police during the tractor parade called by farmer unions January 26. They were demanding repeal of the Centre’s contentious farm laws. Many of the protesters reached the Red Fort driving tractors and entered the monument. Some of them even hoisted religious flags on its domes and a flagstaff at the ramparts.
“Jaspreet Singh is the person who was standing behind accused Maninder Singh. He also climbed up one of the tombs located on both the sides of rampart at Red Fort,” an officer said. “In one of the pictures, he is also seen in offensive gesture holding steel tensile installed at Red Fort,” the officer added.
According to police, Maninder, 30, had ‘motivated’ six people of the neighbourhood. They had accompanied the tractor parade that headed from the Singhu border towards Mukarba Chowk.
Jaspreet is one of the associates. He was identified from the pictures and videos in which he was purportedly standing behind Maninder, police said. Maninder works as a car AC mechanic. He was arrested from in Pitampura in northwest Delhi last week, police had said.
Maninder was ‘radicalised’ by seeing ‘provoking’ Facebook posts of various groups, police had said. They added he would frequently visit the Singhu border and was ‘highly motivated’ by speeches made by leaders there.