'Pre-planned conspiracy', claim police

New Delhi: With the Delhi Police and farmer leaders accusing each other of conspiring to incite the violence that the Capital witnessed on Republic Day, the former has now claimed that they have recovered and collected a horde of evidentiary materials in the aftermath of the tractor parade which pointed towards a "pre-planned conspiracy".

According to police, protesters had hidden the registration numbers of their tractors with the help of stickers which were pasted on the place where the registration number was written. "In some tractors, the registration number was hidden due to bull guards," police said.

As per one official, these protesters had conspired along with their leaders and breached the NOC rules and even tried to kill policemen. "They moved their tractors on barricades where policemen were standing. They wanted to kill them," the official added.

Police officials went on to claim that tear gas grenades, tear gas guns, at least one service pistol and live ammunition were also snatched from police personnel deployed for law and order arrangements on Tuesday.

The preliminary investigation in these cases showed that protesters had deliberately planned to enter Delhi before the scheduled time at 12 pm.

"The timing which was given to them was 12 PM to 5 PM but with a common intention, they all reached Delhi borders before time on tractors in which bull guards were installed and they forcefully removed barricades and entered into the city," the official said.

As per officials who are aware of developments, at Pandav Nagar, two DTC buses and 18 private vehicles were damaged whereas in Ghazipur four DTC buses were vandalised, 15-20 barricades, three private containers were damaged and four barricades were thrown in the drain. At ITO, six DTC buses, five police vehicles were vandalised and 70 iron barricades, two DFMDs, steel rallying were damaged. Overall 428 barricades, 30 police vehicles, eight tyre killers were vandalised, damaged.

Police also claimed that their arms and ammunition were also snatched by protesters during the tractor parade. In the Pandav Nagar area, 12 tear gas hand grenades, 20 mirchi bombs were snatched by protestors. Ten rounds of ammunition along with two gas guns were also snatched by protesters after they beat up policemen. Police also noted the numbers of over 50 such tractors that were involved in breaking barricades and not following their orders.

Meanwhile, the Special Cell and Crime Branch will be probing the case and a team also went to the spot for further probe.