Hours after the Delhi Police claimed that Kapil Gujjar, the Shaheen Bagh shooter, was a member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the party asked in a Twitter post how the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Delhi President Manoj Tiwari had claimed to know there was a report about this– “at 9 AM, 11 hours before the official statement by Crime Branch, Delhi Police”.
The AAP was referring to Tiwari’s interview with ABP News which had aired in the morning, in which he can be heard saying that “he (the shooter) is the son of the AAP’s district president... we are not making this claim, there’s a report on this.”
The clip posted by AAP shows that the interview was aired at around 9 am on Tuesday, 4 February, which was over ten hours before news agency ANI first reported that “the Crime Branch has found certain pictures on the mobile phone of Kapil Gujjar, who opened fire in Shaheen Bagh area on February 1. In these pictures, Kapil can be seen with AAP leaders such as Atishi and Sanjay Singh.”
In fact, Tiwari, it seems, had known about the Delhi Police’s findings on Gujjar not just 10 hours prior, but a day before it was first reported. In an interview with News18, a video of which was posted on Twitter on 3 February, Tiwari can be heard saying “the person who opened fire is the son of the AAP’s district president.”
Twitterati Question Delhi Police
Following the AAP’s allegation, several Twitter users wondered if the Delhi Police had obtained the permission of the Election Commission, before making such a revelation at a time when the Model Code of Conduct is in place.
What Happened at Shaheen Bagh?
The man in question had fired two rounds in the air at Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh area – the epicentre of anti-CAA protests – on Saturday, 1 February. Taken into custody by the police following the incident, he reportedly chanted 'Jai Shri Ram' and was heard saying on video, “Hamare desh mein aur kisi ki nahi chalegi, sirf Hinduon ki chalegi (In our country, only Hindus will have their way, nobody else.)”
Earlier on Tuesday, a court had extended by two days the police custody of Gujjar, after the Delhi Police said there was a possibility that the incident was a part of a larger conspiracy.
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