R-Day violence: Delhi Police arrests man who climbed Red Fort tomb

NEW DELHI: A 29-year-old man who allegedly climbed one of the tombs of the Red Fort during the violence on Republic day has been arrested.

The police said on Monday they have arrested Jaspreet Singh, one of the associates of Maninder Singh who was arrested last Tuesday for allegedly swinging swords at the historic monument.

Jaspreet Singh, a resident of Swaroop Nagar in northwest Delhi, was arrested by a Crime Branch team on Saturday.

“Jaspreet Singh is the person who was standing behind accused Maninder Singh and also climbed 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.”      

Police said Maninder Singh, 30, had “motivated” six people of his neighbourhood who had accompanied the tractor parade that headed from the Singhu border towards Mukarba Chowk.

Jaspreet Singh is one of the associates and was identified from the pictures and videos in which he was purportedly standing behind Maninder Singh, police said.

Maninder Singh, who works as a car AC mechanic, was arrested from Pitampura in northwest Delhi last week, police had said.

According to the police, Maninder Singh was seen in a video swinging two swords at Red Fort “with the intent of motivating or radicalising and energising violent anti-national elements indulging in brutal assault and attacking police persons on duty”.

Maninder Singh was “radicalised” by seeing “provoking” Facebook posts of various groups, police had said, adding he would frequently visit the Singhu border and was “highly motivated” by speeches made by leaders there.  

Thousands of protesters had clashed with the police during the tractor parade on January 26 demanding repeal of the farm laws.

Many of the protesters reached the Red Fort driving tractors and entered the monument, and some of them even hoisted religious flags on its domes.