The family of the Shaheen Bagh shooter, Kapil Gujjar, has denied claims made by the Delhi Police that they are associated with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Gaje Singh, father of Shaheen Bagh firing accused said that neither he nor any member of his family has anything to do with AAP. He claimed that he was with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) till 2012 and left politics in the same year.
Statement by Kapil Gujjar’s Father & Brother ; He and his family has got Nothing to do with AAP. #BJPDirtyPolitics pic.twitter.com/kbBMpEQfmL
— Ankit Lal (@AnkitLal) February 5, 2020
In a major twist in the second firing incident in the Shaheen Bagh area, the Delhi Police on Tuesday evening claimed that accused Kapil Gujjar is learnt to be a member of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party.
The photographs released by the police also showed him alongside AAP leaders Sanjay Singh and Atishi Marlena.
The revelation has been made by the Crime Branch which is interrogating Gujjar, a resident of Dallupura village in east Delhi, who fired shots at Shaheen Bagh on February 1.
“During investigation, Kapil Gurjjar’s phone was recovered and his photos with AAP’s Sanjay Singh and Atishi Marlena have emerged,” an officer has claimed according to IANS.
Gujjar in his statement to the police had reportedly said that he and his father joined AAP in early 2019. According to the police, Gurjar’s father Gaje Singh contested the polls twice on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket (Jungpura in 2008 and Patparganj in 2012).
Two days after a youth, identified as Rambhakt Gopal, fired a pistol at a group of anti-CAA protesters near Jamia Milia University, Gujjar on February 1 fired two rounds in the air at Shaheen Bagh, the epicentre of the protest against the country’s new citizenship law.
This is the second time in a week that an armed man has entered the site where the protest against the CAA has been on since over a month.
Gujjar fired three bullets in the air after warning protesters to vacate the spot. He also raised communal slogans. According to the police, the accused was annoyed over the protest at Shaheen Bagh and the ensuing road blockade for nearly 50 days now.
Gujjar chanted Jai Shri Ram and said, “Humare desh me aur kisi ki nahi chalegi, sirf Hindu ki chalegi (only Hindus shall have a say in our country, no one else),” as he was taken into custody by the Delhi Police.
Interestingly, the two incidents happened after Union Minister Anurag Thakur raised ‘shoot the traitor’ slogans during a public rally in Delhi.
Meanwhile, the AAP has termed the development as BJP’s “dirty politics”.
Jamia University and Shaheen Bagh have been pivotal in the anti-CAA protests.
The passing of the controversial Citizenship Bill has triggered countrywide protests and since it became law, citizens especially students have taken to the streets in protest against the legislation.
The amended law seeks to provide citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities who have faced religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan and have arrived in India on or before December 31, 2014.
Delhi is going to the polls on February 8 for the 70-member Assembly. Counting will take place on February 11.