Violence case in the Red Fort: Maninder Singh’s first defendant arrested and swords seized
Maninder Singh, wanted in the Red Fort violence case, has been arrested. According to the Delhi Police Special Cell, Singh was arrested in the Pitam Pura area of the national capital on Tuesday night. Police said two swords were also recovered from his home in Swaroop Nagar.
During questioning, Singh told police that he visited the Singhu border, one of the farmers’ protest sites in Delhi, regularly. Singh said he was very “motivated” by the speeches made by the leaders there.
Singh was arrested during a raid by the Special Cell team. The 30-year-old is the son of Jaswant Singh. He is a resident of the Sindhi colony in the Swaroop Nagar area of Delhi.
An auto mechanic by profession, Singh was seen in video wielding two swords in the Red Fort on January 26. “The arrested defendants have revealed that they have been radicalized by seeing provocative Facebook posts from various groups,” Delhi police said in a statement.
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Police said Singh also motivated six people from the neighborhood in the Swaroop Nagar area. The six, mounted on bicycles, had accompanied a farmers’ rally heading from the Singhu border to Mukarba Chowk on Republic Day. Before joining the tractor rally, Singh had kept two swords with him.
According to his plan, the accused along with his five associates and other unknown armed criminals entered the Red Fort and Singh danced / swung his sword. That sword dance had motivated violent protesters to cause chaos in the Red Fort by allowing all manner of violence against public officials, including police officers on duty there, and causing damage to the Red Fort historical monument, police said.
Police said Singh also runs a sword training school on an empty lot near his home in Swaroop Nagar. A long video was found on his mobile phone showing him wielding swords in the Red Fort. Other photos of his presence at Singhu’s protest site on the border from time to time are on his phone.
READ MORE: Red Fort Riot: Man Behind Raising ‘Nishan Sahib’ Arrested
Thousands of protesting farmers had clashed with the police during the tractor parade called by farmers’ unions on January 26 to highlight their demand for the repeal of the three farm laws. The protesters veered off the designated route for the proposed tractor parade and stormed the Red Fort. They also attacked policemen, vandalized police vehicles and the ticket counter at the Red Fort.
Some of them raised religious flags at the Red Fort, the Mughal-era monument from which the Prime Minister addresses the nation on Independence Day. The saffron flag raised by the protesters was the ‘Nishan Sahib’, a symbol of the Sikh religion that is seen in every compound in Gurdwara. The ‘Nishan Sahib’ is a triangular flag that is sacred to Sikhs. The flag is seen in all the Gurdwara complexes. The emblem of the flag consists of ‘Khanda’, a double edged sword, Chakra, a disc and two Kirpan that intersect at the handles. The other flag appeared to belong to a farmers’ union.
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She is a freelance blogger, writer, and speaker, and writes for various entertainment magazines.