Aam Aadmi Party MLA Atishi Marlena on Tuesday alleged that one of the persons accused in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri violence case was a Bharatiya Janata Party leader.
“The main accused in the Jahangirpuri riots – Ansar – is a BJP leader,” Marlena wrote on Twitter. “He played a major role in getting BJP’s candidate Sangeeta Bajaj to contest [Assembly polls] and plays an active role in [the] BJP.”
In a tweet, Marlena posted photos where Ansar could purportedly be seen with BJP leaders. She alleged that the BJP was responsible for instigating the communal violence that erupted in the Jahangirpuri area on April 16 during a procession to mark the Hindu festival of Hanuman Jayanti.
“It is clear that the BJP instigated the riots,” she wrote on Twitter. “BJP should apologise to Delhiites. BJP is a party of goons.”
At a press conference on Tuesday evening, Aam Aadmi Party MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj made the same allegations and accused the BJP of reaping benefits from riots.
“From Ram Navami to Hanuman Jayanti, riots were orchestrated not only in Delhi but in seven states,” Bhardwaj said. “BJP president, ministers, MP, MLA were all taking advantage of the riots by writing scripts and WhatsApp messages.”
Two people were killed and several were injured as violence broke out in at least five states on April 10 during processions held on the occasion of the Hindu festival Ram Navami.
Meanwhile, on Monday, BJP MP Manoj Tiwari had alleged that Ansar had links with the Aam Aadmi Party.
“Is Aam Aadmi Party running a riot factory in Delhi?” he had asked in a video shared on the BJP’s official Twitter handle.
Ansar and Alam are the main accused in the Jahangirpuri violence, according to NDTV. Both were arrested by the police on Tuesday.
The first information report filed in the matter stated that the procession was being held in a “peaceful manner” until it reached the mosque when “one Ansar along with 4-5 people started quarreling”.
“That led to commotion with people from both sides pelting stones at each other,” it noted.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the Delhi Police arrested five more people and detained a minor in connection with the case, NDTV reported. All of them, the police said, belonged to the same family.
The police also said that the situation was returning to normalcy in Jahangirpuri, PTI reported. The Delhi Police had deployed 500 personnel and six companies of additional force in the locality after the communal clashes.
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