India / Delhi resident Jaspreet Singh, seen atop Red Fort on R-Day, arrested: Police

New Delhi: In the latest development in the Republic Day violence case, Delhi Police Special Cell has arrested Jaspreet Singh, who was seen climbing one of the tombs of the Red Fort on January 26. Jaspreet is also called Sunny and is a resident of Swaroop Nagar in northwest Delhi.

Notably, Jaspreet is an associate of Maninder Singh, who was arrested on February 16 for allegedly swinging swords at the Red Fort.

"Jaspreet Singh is the person who was standing behind accused Maninder Singh and also climbed up one of the tombs located on both the sides of rampart at Red Fort," an officer said, adding that "In one of the pictures, he is also seen in offensive gesture holding steel tensile installed at Red Fort."

"The arrested person was seen in a video swinging two swords at Red Fort with intent to motivate/radicalise and energise the violent anti-national elements indulging in brutal assault/attack on police persons on duty with swords, khandas, iron rods, axes, barsaas, dandas etc and damaging historical monument Red Fort on Republic Day 2021," the police had said in a statement.

The Delhi Police on February 20 released the photographs of 20 people who were allegedly involved in the violence that broke out at the Red Fort during the farmers' tractor rally on January 26. "We have released the pictures and the process of identification (of the people) has been started," a senior police officer said.

Delhi had witnessed widespread violence during the farmers' tractor rally on Republic Day. Thousands of protesting farmers had deviated from the designated routes and created mayhem in many parts of the national capital. Hundreds of protesting kisans, driving tractors, had also entered the Red Fort and hoisted religious flags at the iconic monument, leading to a huge uproar across the country.

Hundreds of farmers have been protesting since the last week of November 2020 at Delhi's borders (Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur) with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, demanding a rollback of the Centre's three new agri laws.

The kisans are protesting against Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, and The Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act 2020. The three Bills were passed during the Monsoon session in September 2020.