Hindu Raksha Dal chief Bhupinder Tomar alias Pinki Chaudhary, one of the prime accused in the case of raising communal slogans at Delhi's Jantar Mantar a few weeks ago, surrendered before the Delhi Police on Tuesday, 31 August, while being flocked by hundreds of his supporters. Chaudhary surrendered at the Mandir Mark police station.
Chaudhary had been evading arrest for the past several days, even as nine others, including former Delhi BJP spokesperson Ashwini Upadhyay, had already been arrested.
Chaudhary's surrender comes after the Delhi High Court on 27 August denied him interim protection from arrest till the next date of hearing. The court, however, issued a notice on his anticipatory bail plea and fixed the next date of hearing on 13 September.
A video of Chaudhary went viral on social media on Sunday where he could be heard denying the allegations against him.
Communal Slogans at Jantar Mantar
Videos shared on social media of the a gathering at Jantar Mantar that took place on 8 August showed a crowd shouting incendiary, violence-inciting slogans.
The gathering was reportedly called as an initiative under the 'Bharat Jodo (Unite India) Movement' and was supposed to be a march against "Colonial-era laws." The attendees had reportedly gathered to march in support of the Uniform Civil Code, too.
The police has so far arrested Uttam Malik, Deepak Singh, Preet Singh, Vinod Sharma, Deepak Kumar, Vinit Bajpai, and Sushil Tiwari. The gathering was believed to have been organised by Upadhyay.
'Govt Should Forgive the Kids...They are Hindu Raksha Dal Workers': Pinki Chaudhary
In a video released by ETV Bharat, Chaudhary took responsibility for all the people present at the Jantar Mantar protest.
"Agar kissi bache na kuch galat kiya hai, toh sarkaar ko maaf kar dena chahiye. Hindu Raksha Dal zimmidari leta hai, jo bhi loog vahaan the humaare the. Baat khatam. Usmein agar koi galat baat kahi hai, toh hum uske liye maafi maangte hai. Lekin humaare yuva, unka manobal nahi tootna chahiye. Sabhi Hindu Raksha Dal ke karyakarta the. Jai Sri Ram. (The government should forgive the kids if they said something wrong. They were all from Hindu Raksha Dal. I take responsibility, but the morale of our young boys shouldn't be broken. They are all workers of the Hindu Raksha Dal.)"Pinki Chaudhary
His organisation had also taken full responsibility for the January attack in JNU by a mob where about 30 students were injured.
He had then said, "JNU is a haven for communists where pro-Pakistan slogans are raised. Anti-national activities take place here. We can not stand this. If you want to talk in favour of another country, then go there. We will not stand anti-national activities."
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