New Delhi: Deep Sidhu, who was arrested for the violence at the Red Fort on Republic Day, has told police that he had no “bad intentions” and went to the historic monument as everybody was going there, officials said on Wednesday.
The Delhi Police’s Crime Branch questioned Sidhu on Wednesday about his whereabouts and acts at the Red Fort on January 26, officials said.
Sidhu was sent to seven-day police custody on Tuesday by a court here following his arrest a day earlier from Karnal bypass in connection with the violence at the Red Fort.
Sidhu, according to police, was “a prominent player” behind the January 26 incident.
Following his arrest by the Delhi Police, he was handed over to the Crime Branch, which is probing the case in connection with the violence and vandalism at the historic fort.
On the first day of police remand, the focus of investigation remained on how Sidhu reached the Red Fort and his activities there on the day of incident, a senior police officer said.
Sidhu initially denied being present at Singhu border on January 25 but after the police presented evidence, he admitted that he was present at the farmers’ protest site but slept at a spot a bit away from there.
Sidhu claimed that when he woke up on January 26, there were two-three missed calls and messages on his mobile phone about people heading to the Red Fort, so he too reached there with his three friends using his mobile phone to navigate.
Sidhu and his friends left Singhu border at around 11 am in a vehicle and reached the Red Fort at around 1 pm. After violence broke out there, they returned to the border in the same vehicle, he said.
When questioned about his role in the flag hoisting incident at the fort, he denied his involvement and claimed that he did not gather or instigate the crowd, the officer said.
According to the officer, when asked why he went to the Red Fort when it did not figure in the route approved by authorities for the tractor parade, Sidhu claimed that since everybody was going, he too went there but had no “bad intentions”.
Also read: Why Was the Red Fort Left Unguarded When Delhi Was on ‘High Alert’?
While on the run, Sidhu kept switching his locations between Haryana and Punjab, police said, adding that the hunt for his three friends is on.
Police are now trying to recover his mobile phone and probing the exact locations where he hid while also verifying whatever he revealed during the interrogation, the officer said.
Earlier, the police had announced Rs 1 lakh as a reward for anyone with information on Sidhu’s whereabouts, as he had been on the run after being seen at the Red Fort.
On the day of the tractor rally, at the Red Fort, a group of protesters hoisted the Sikh religious flag along with the farmers’ union flag on a pole just below the tricolour flying atop the main dome of the Red Fort building. A section of farmers at the site itself made their disapproval quite apparent and urged protesters to come down from the poles and ramparts.
Videos of actor Deep Sidhu at the Red Fort urging protests to hoist the Nishan Sahib went viral. However, Sidhu’s counsel had on Tuesday claimed that he had nothing to do with the violence and was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
The farmers’ unions accused him of being a tout of the government and acting at the behest of the BJP to malign the farmers’ movement. The unions also questioned the intentions of the Delhi Police for not being able to control the situation. According to agitating unions, the Delhi Police gave a free pass to Deep Sidhu and other ‘miscreants’.
In response, Sidhu later released a video on social media saying that he has dirt on farmers’ union leaders which he will share when the “right time” comes. According to Sidhu, the union leaders had been making many provocative speeches from the stages at the protest sites in the run up to the January 26 tractor rally.
Also read: Tractor Rally: Questions Over Arrest Tally; Protesters’ Families Say They Were Kept in Dark
Sidhu’s disagreements with farmers’ union were visible even before the tractor rally. As The Wire has reported before, on January 25, Sidhu had urged the protesters at Singhu border in Punjabi, “Eh rest karan da sama nahi, barricade todan da sama hai…. Pehla sanu Ring Road de dita, hun mana karde a (This is not the time to rest but to break the barricades… First, they gave us Ring Road, now they have refused).” On hearing his words, several groups of protesters had forced him off the stage.
Farmers had suspected even before that Sidhu may be close to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Sidhu had campaigned for BJP MP from Gurdaspur Sunny Deol in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. However, Sunny Deol has been denying any connection with Sidhu following the controversy. To prove his association with the BJP, farmers’ union leaders and supporters had also circulated photos of Sidhu with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A day before Sidhu’s arrest, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had alleged in the Lok Sabha that “forces within the government” were responsible for the Red Fort violence. A joint parliamentary committee probe into this “big conspiracy” was needed, he said.