The Delhi Police has arrested two persons, Maninderjit Singh, who is a Dutch national settled in Birmingham, United Kingdom and Khempreet, in connection with the January 26 Red Fort violence case. Police said that Khempreet had assaulted a policeman on duty at the Red Fort with a spear on January 26 while Maninderjit, who was nabbed at Delhi Airport, is a habitual offender.
Police said that 23-year-old Maninderjit and Khempreet (21) were arrested on Tuesday. Various teams of the Crime Branch Unit probing the case have been conducting regular raids at different places in Delhi and Punjab.
According to Monika Bharadwaj, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Crime Branch, Maninderjit Singh, a Dutch national, settled in Birmingham, UK, was arrested at the Delhi airport while trying to flee from India on forged travel documents as Jarmanjit Singh.
“He originally belongs to a village in Gurdaspur district of Punjab. He was planning to fly first to Nepal from Delhi and then head to the UK. A look out circular was also issued by the police against him in connection with the case and he is also previously involved in two criminal cases,” said the DCP.
“The other accused, Khempreet, a resident of northwest Delhi’s Swaroop Nagar had assaulted a policeman on duty inside the well area of the Red Fort with a spear, was absconding and willfully evading his arrest,” said the DCP.
“The presence of Maninderjit Singh at the Red Fort was established through electronic evidence. There are video footage on record, which shows his presence alongside the unlawfully assembled unruly riotous mob at the Red Fort carrying a spear during farmers agitation on January 26. During an investigation, an electronic map was drawn to figure out the possible route taken by the accused to reach the Red Fort on the date of the incident, which transpired that Maninderjit alongside the mob, started moving from the Singhu Border, Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar, Burari, Majnu ka Tila and finally reached the Red Fort,” said the DCP.
“Electronic evidence further corroborates the fact that he had also visited the Singhu Border protest site on different dates and took an active part in the violence at the Red Fort. During analysis of videos available on case record, Khempreet Singh, along with his associates, was seen carrying a spear in his hand and assaulting a policeman inside the Red Fort,” said the DCP.
“With the help of a technical surveillance, regular raids were being conducted at the possible hideouts of Khempreet. Local informers were also deployed in the vicinity of the available whereabouts of the accused and finally on Tuesday, his location was traced to an area in west Delhi’s Khayala, where he was hiding in a house of one of his relatives. A raid was conducted and he was arrested from there,” said the DCP.
“During an investigation, Khempreet Singh disclosed that on January 26, he along with his associates, joined the mob from Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar and finally reached the Red Fort after breaching the barricades at Burari and Chatta Rail,” she added.
The police said Maninderjit Singh, along with his family, is settled in Birmingham and is employed as a labourer in a construction field. In December 2019, he visited India and could not go back due to lockdown last year. He was produced before a court and his four days of police custody remand has been taken.
Khempreet Singh will be produced before a court on Wednesday. He is also a close associate of already arrested accused Maninder Singh, police added.