Delhi Police has arrested a 33-year-old man, accused of killing Head Constable Ratan Lal during the 2020 northeast Delhi riots. He was nabbed from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh. Police said that he was declared a ‘Proclaimed Offender’ by the Delhi High Court.
The accused has been identified as Mohammad Wasim alias Bablu alias Salman, a resident of Chand Bagh. Police said that after the riots, he had destroyed his mobile phone and did not even contact his relatives in the last two years.
Apart from Lal, the then Shahdara DCP, Amit Sharma and then ACP Gokalpuri, Anuj Kumar also sustained serious injuries along with 50 other policemen during the riots.
According to Ravindra Singh Yadav, Special Commissioner of Police, Crime, during the investigation, police identified and arrested 22 accused after analysing CCTV footage and videos, amped video enhance technique, call detail records, statements of the witnesses and disclosures of the accused people.
“Out of 22, five accused absconded and a special team was constituted to apprehend them. During the course of the investigation, the team developed information and deployed sources in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh as houses of the accused were found locked after the incident,” said the Special CP.
Thereafter, raids were conducted at several places in Delhi, but no clue of the accused was found, he added.
The officer said the investigation started moving forward after ASI Mohd. Rahisuddin received inputs regarding one accused named Wasim, who was staying in a very clandestine manner in Aligarh.
Thereafter, information was developed from Aligarh and it was confirmed that the accused was working in a small lock-making factory of one Dilshad. By then the team had also established his precise location, which subsequently paved the way for his arrest.
During interrogation, Wasim told police that in 2010, he came to Delhi and started living at his parents' house. He along with his friends started participating in the anti-CAA protest in February 2020 where he came in contact with several rabble rousers and anti-social elements.
On the day of the incident, he along with his associates, placed a carton of thinner-filled glass bottles also called crude bombs on the terrace of a house. These bottles were later thrown at police officers during the riots, he said.
According to police, on January 24, 2020, HC Lal, who was suffering from mild fever and was advised to take rest by his colleagues, joined duty in view of the grave tension in the area.
He helped the then DCP and ACP in pacifying the crowd and controlling it as the situation started heating up. He succumbed to 24 injuries he received while shielding officers when the crowd started attacking them.