Shaheen Bagh shooter an AAP worker: Police

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Shaheen Bagh shooter an AAP worker: Police

TNN | Feb 5, 2020, 02.45 AM IST

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police claimed on Tuesday that the 29-year-old man, Kapil Baisla (alias Gurjar), who had fired in the air at the Shaheen Bagh protest site while shouting pro-Hindu slogans on Saturday evening is an Aam Aadmi Party worker. This was confirmed by DCP (crime branch) Rajesh Deo.

Baisla, who had been nabbed from the spot by the police, allegedly claimed during interrogation that he and his father, Gaje Singh, were members of AAP and had enrolled with the party in early 2019. The police claimed the crime branch had got deleted data from Baisla’s phone retrieved through forensic experts and found a series of photographs validating his alleged claims.

 

Father, brother say no AAP link

The police denied allegations that it had leaked the photographs. Sources claimed that the photographs had been sent to Kapil Baisla by a third person, who had clicked them at the event. These images were also shared on a WhatsApp group, which has dozens of members.

The photographs show AAP’s Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh putting the party cap on Baisla and the latter meeting AAP netas. It also had some pictures of Baisla posing with guns. The photographs are from 2019 and were saved on back-up. “Before reaching the spot, Baisla had logged off from WhatsApp and uninstalled it but he was asked to log back and the photographs were found saved in WhatsApp image folder,” said a source. Delhi Police’s SIT has now launched an investigation to establish if there was any kind of conspiracy. The Crime Branch has taken Baisla on a two-day remand and will interrogate him to find out if anyone had asked him to carry out the shooting. His father and brother are also expected to join the investigation. The police went to Baisla’s house but found the father missing. They had arrested his friend, Sarthak, on Tuesday for assisting him.

 

 

 

DCP (Crime) Rajesh Deo said Baisla had said he had joined AAP along with a dozen other people, including his father, in early 2019. Cops said they had found several tweets by AAP workers on May 4, 2019 announcing Baisla’s father Gaje Singh, then the district president of BSP, and Baisla joining the party in presence of senior AAP members.

 

 

 

However, Baisla’s father Singh and his brother, Sachin, who have gone missing, put out a video message from an undisclosed location, saying that they had nothing to do with AAP. “Every year during elections, a number of parties approach us and they make us wear their party cap or symbol as a mark of respect. We have nothing to do with AAP, this is being done to malign us. No one from our family has been with AAP,” said Sachin. Gaje said AAP netas had approached him during an election campaign and put their cap on him. “They had asked me to join, but I have nothing to do with the party. Even BJP had approached me but I refused them too,” he said.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, police have established the sequence of events before the shooting. Baisla and Sarthak took the DND to reach Maharani Bagh from east Delhi’s Dallupura. They travelled on Baisla’s KTM bike. After reaching Shaheen Bagh, Baisla gave his phone to Sarthak and asked him to hand it over to his family.

 

 

 

The cops have also identified the man who had supplied the pistol to Baisla seven years ago and a manhunt has been launched to nab him. Baisla’s interrogation reports cite him saying: “I had hidden the pistol in my trouser while travelling, but since it had become uncomfortable, I stopped and entered a bathroom at Holy Family Hospital and hid it under my jacket,” he said. Cops have booked Baisla and Sarthak for attempt to murder and under sections of the Arms Act.