Jantar Mantar case: Uttam Upadhyay now arrested for raising anti-Muslim slogans

New Delhi: The Delhi Police on Wednesday said that it had arrested Uttam Upadhyay, one of the prime accused in the Jantar Mantar hate speech case, where Islamophobic slogans were raised and other communal sloganeering had taken place on August 8 at an event meant to protest Colonial-era laws.

While the event was organised by Supreme Court Advocate and BJP member Ashwini Upadhyay, who was also arrested in the case, the police are now saying that Uttam was the main culprit who raised anti-Muslim slogans there.

So far, the Delhi Police have arrested eight people in connection with the inflammatory, anti-Muslim slogans that were raised at Jantar Mantar on August 8 during the event coined "Bharat Jodo Andolan". Significantly, a lower court has granted Ashwini bail.

A senior officer said during questioning Uttam told them that he came to the protest on his own and was not associated with any association. "We are verifying his testimony and further investigation is going on in the case," the official said.

In the several purported videos of the event that have sparked outrage on social media, a mob can be seen chanting slogans like, "Jab Mulle Kaate Jaenge, Ram Ram Chillaenge…," and "Hindustan Me Rehna Hoga, Jai Shree Ram Kehna Hoga…" Police said Uttam was the one who raised those slogans.

The Delhi Police had registered an FIR for promoting enmity between different groups (IPC 153A) against unknown persons and for violating DDMA's Covid guidelines.

Earlier, three accused, namely Preet Singh, Deepak Singh and Vinod Sharma were denied bail. Metropolitan Magistrate Udbhav Kumar Jain had observed that in one of the videos, the accused can be seen making "scathing remarks" which are "undemocratic" and "uncalled for" from a citizen of this country where principles like secularism hold the value of basic feature imbibed in the Constitution.