Delhi CM attacker alleges ‘dog order distress’: Cops

The accused, Rajeshbhai Khimjibhai Sakriya, 41, from Rajkot in Gujarat, posed as a complainant and attacked the CM

New Delhi

CRPF at the CM’s official residence. (RAJ K RAJ /HT PHOTO)

A day after the Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta was assaulted at a weekly public hearing programme at her residence, the Delhi Police said the accused revealed during initial interrogation that he undertook the attack due to “visions” of deities, telling him to act on “torture” of street dogs.

The accused, Rajeshbhai Khimjibhai Sakriya, 41, from Rajkot in Gujarat, posed as a complainant and attacked the CM while she was listening to the grievances of people. Police on Thursday said Sakriya was sent to a five-day police custody by a Delhi court.

Sakriya has already been interrogated by all senior police officers in the northern range, teams of Special Cell and others, officers said.

A senior officer, who interrogated the suspect, said, “Sakriya earlier tried to mislead us by saying that he had come to Delhi to get justice for his relative who’s in jail but later admitted that he attacked the CM because he was deeply hurt due to the Supreme Court’s order on street dogs. He told us he takes care of 150-200 dogs in his town and had multiple visions last week wherein he saw ‘shivling’ and a dog. An entity in the vision told him about the torture the dogs are facing in the national capital and that he must do something to save them…”

Police said Sakriya had the dreams and visions last week and then decided to travel to Ujjain to visit the temple and seek “answers”.

Police said Sakriya, who works as an autorickshaw driver, left for Ujjain on August 17. “He then decided to come to Delhi and protest. He told us he boarded a train there on August 18 to Delhi without a ticket and without any luggage. On August 19, he reached Delhi early morning and went to a Hanuman temple,” added the senior officer.

Another officer said the accused had only planned a sit-in protest followed by a hunger strike. The officer said, “Sakriya wanted to sit outside the CM’s bungalow and start a hunger strike but realised that the protest won’t work. In addition, he had watched videos online of dogs being caught in nets and this hurt him. He decided to meet the CM and confront her.”

Police said on August 19 afternoon, he went to CM’s Shalimar Bagh house, took videos and spoke to people there, who told him he could meet the chief minister during the public hearing on Wednesday.

Officers said they have seized Sakriya’s phone and sent it to the forensic lab for examination. Officials said they have found five short clips and photos of the area in and around CM’s residence.

Police are also looking at every place where Sakriya stayed or visited. “We have checked the Hanuman temple, the Gujarati Samaj, metro route and other places. At the Gujarati Samaj, which is hardly 700 metres from the CM’s residence in Civil Lines, Sakriya checked in at 2.52pm on August 19 and checked out at 7.25am on Wednesday,” a third officer, from the north district, said.

The officer said that Sakriya told them he got “enraged” after looking at dog videos and decided he wanted “justice” for “lakhs of dogs”.

“Sakriya saw the CM and decided to hold her hands. He held her hands and pulled her. He then pulled her hair and pushed her. There was jostling,” the third officer said.

Sakriya’s mother, Bhanuben, said he was “distressed” after watching videos of stray dogs being removed by municipal authorities.