A member of Arakshan Virodhi Party has been arrested for burning copy of the Constitution during a protest on August 9 at Parliament Street, the police said on Sunday.
Deepak Gaur, a resident of Faridabad has been booked under the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971. He was the main accused in the case.
The police said that they received a complaint on August 10 from one Anil Tanwar, national incharge of Akhil Bhartiya Bheem Sena, regarding burning the copies of Constitution and slogan shouting against B.R. Ambedkar and the SC/ST community by protesters of organisation named Youth for Equality on August 9 at Parliament Street. The complainant had submitted a CD containing a video of the incident in which people were seen burning a book and shouting slogans.
On August 9, two different organisations — Youth Equality Foundation (Azad Sena) and Arakshan Virodhi Party — held a joint protest at Parliament Street. Mr. Gaur was heading Arakshan Virodhi Party while Abhishek Shukla was heading Youth Equality Foundation.
“We have formed teams and several raids were conducted in Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Many of the accused were found absconding from their houses. We got an information regarding him [Mr. Gaur] and he was apprehended from Faridabad,” said Madhur Verma, DCP (New Delhi).
During interrogation, Mr. Gaur revealed that he and Abhishek Shukla conspired to burn the Constitution with an intention to grab the attention of the government against the amendments in the SC/ST Act. They also issued press notes and got the video viral on social media, said the police.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Sunday said that the burning of a copy of the Constitution was done at the behest of those in power at the Centre at a place (Jantar Mantar) that is used as a platform by people to raise their voices to protect the Constitution.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has called the incident “shocking”.
