Delhi riots: Man accused of killing cop arrested

Special commissioner of police (crime branch) Ravindra Singh Yadav said the arrested man, identified as Mohammad Wasim alias Bablu, was wanted for the murder of head constable Ratan Lal

The crime branch unit of Delhi Police on Monday said they arrested a 30-year-old man—accused of murdering a head constable on February 24, 2020 during the communal riots in north-east Delhi—from Aligarh in Uttar Pradesh on Friday.

Police received inputs that Wasim had fled to Aligarh and was working in a small lock-manufacturing factory. Our team followed up on the information and arrested him. (Repesentative image)

Special commissioner of police (crime branch) Ravindra Singh Yadav said the arrested man, identified as Mohammad Wasim alias Bablu, was wanted for the murder of head constable Ratan Lal. He said that Wasim and his associates were part of a mob that attacked a police team near Chand Bagh in which Lal was shot dead and 50 other policemen, including the thenDCP (Shahdara) Amit Sharma were injured.

According to Yadav, Wasim and his associates had thrown crude bombs at police vehicles. A case was registered under various sections of Indian Penal Code in this connection on February 25, 2020 at Dayalpur police station, and was later transferred to the crime branch. “We received inputs that Wasim had fled to Aligarh and was working in a small lock-manufacturing factory. Our team followed up on the information and arrested him,” he said.

He added that Wasim and his associates were active participants in the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protest in February 2020. “During this demonstration, he came in contact with several rabble rousers and anti-social elements. On the day of the incident, he and his associates filled thinner in glass bottles, packed them in a carton and placed them on the terrace of a house. These crude bombs were thrown at the police officers during the riots. After the incident, Wasim destroyed his mobile phone and did not even contact his relatives for the last two years,” he said.

The special CP said that on the basis of analysis of footage from CCTV cameras and mobile phone videos (taken near the place of incident), statements of the witnesses and disclosures of several suspects, 22 people were identified and arrested over the course of the last couple of years. “Five suspects went on the run and were later declared proclaimed offenders by the court .Wasim was one of them,” he added.