Punjabi actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu, allegedly involved in the Red Fort violence case, was questioned by a team of Delhi police and Intelligence Bureau officers for over eight hours at the Crime Branch office in Chanakyapuri on Wednesday.
Mr. Sidhu was arrested from Karnal in Haryana on Monday and was sent to seven-day police custody by the Delhi court on Tuesday.
A senior police officer said that Mr. Sidhu was quizzed to find out if the Red Fort violence was part of a bigger conspiracy. He was questioned about the location where he was hiding for 12 days after the incident, his association with any foreign-based organisation, source of his funding, and about the woman who was uploading his videos on social media on his behalf from the U.S.
Leads in case
“Deep [Sidhu] is one of the main conspirators who took the tractor rally towards the Red Fort and instigated violence. The violence on Republic Day was part of a larger conspiracy and not just a random occurrence. We have many questions and leads in the case that needed to be established during the investigation. If required, he will be confronted with other people who were arrested in the Red Fort violence case,” said the officer.
He added that the tractors leading the mob towards the Red Fort had specially designed iron guards to dodge police barricades and DTC buses placed to stop them.
Uploader from U.S.
When the mob forcibly entered the fort premises, they rushed towards the rampart and a man climbed a pole and hoisted a religious flag. It was no random occurrence. The affiliation of the people behind the violence has to be uncovered, said the officer
“We have also questioned Mr. Sidhu about the woman who was uploading videos on Facebook. We have got details of the IP address of the video uploader and it was a woman in the U.S. We are scanning his phone call records. He will be taken to Punjab and Haryana, if required, as his mobile phone is still missing,” he added.
When asked why he had been hiding after the incident, Mr. Sidhu allegedly claimed that he feared for his life as many protesters were angry with him for the Red Fort violence.