New Delhi: Six people, including Supreme Court lawyer and former Delhi BJP spokesperson Ashwini Upadhyay, were arrested by the Delhi Police on Tuesday morning in connection with their role in raising inflammatory, anti-Muslim slogans at a Jantar Mantar event organised by Upadhyay on Sunday.
Apart from Upadhyay, the five other accused were identified as Deepak Singh Hindu from the Hindu Force, Vineet Kranti, Preet Singh, Deepak Kumar and Vinod Sharma.
"They are all members of different right-wing outfits," one police official said.
As per sources, they have started their probe to check the link between all these accused people and whether they were connected to the "Bharat Jodo Andolan" organised by Upadhyay, against colonial-era laws on Sunday at Jantar Mantar.
"Various angles being probed which includes whether they were known to each other and whether the speeches made by a mob of protesters were planned," sources said.
While the Delhi Police had initially booked "unknown people" despite taking cognizance of video material, they started identifying and raiding the city on Monday night after a day of outrage on social media.
Sources said not only district police but also a special unit was involved in the search of these accused people.
"Various places in Delhi-NCR were raided by teams. The top cop was also monitoring the whole situation," sources said. The first arrest was made from North-East Delhi's Karawal Nagar - Deepak.
In court, the police said they wanted to check whether the accused persons were funded to raise the slogans.
Taking suo moto cognizance of videos circulating online in which some people are seen raising communal slogans at Jantar Mantar on Sunday, the Delhi Police had filed an FIR and begun a manhunt for the accused. Later, The Delhi Police registered an FIR for promoting enmity between different groups (IPC 153A) against unknown persons and for violating DDMA's Covid guidelines.
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…"