A court here on Tuesday remanded Naveen Dalal and Darvesh Shahpur, both from Haryana, to two days’ police custody in the case of allegedly attacking JNU student leader Umar Khalid.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Deepak Sherawat allowed the plea of the police to interrogate them in custody after counsel for the probe agency submitted that their interrogation was necessary.
On August 15, the accused had uploaded a 4.28-minute video on social media claiming responsibility for the attack.
‘Gift to nation’
They said that they wanted to give “the people of the nation a gift on the day”.
On Tuesday, the police said that the accused had “no intention” to kill Mr. Khalid but just to “disrupt the event and gain popularity”.
On the day of the incident, Dalal attacked Mr. Khalid out the Constitution Club of India while Shahpur was standing nearby.
Following the attack, both of them fled in different directions. One of them took a bus and then a metro, the police said.
Attack unplanned
They claimed that it was an impulsive decision and the two “had not planned the attack”.
Dalal allegedly told the police that he did not fire from the weapon and it fell down while fleeing the spot.
The police are probing Mr. Khalid’s allegations about the weapon being pointed towards him.
The accused also said that they wanted to draw attention towards the issue of cow protection and thought that targeting the event would highlight their cause.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Manishi Chandra confirmed that the accused Naveen Dalal was arrested in 2014 for allegedly entering the Bhartiya Janata Party office on Ashoka Road with a severed cow head.
Dalal is also a member of a gau raksha outfit called ‘Gau Rakshak Sena’.
