Tiwari house attack: Five more held, cops suspect conspiracy
A day after two brothers were arrested for allegedly breaking into the house of Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari and assaulted his staff shortly after midnight on Sunday, the Delhi Police have charged them with rioting and attempt to commit culpable homicide.
In addition to this, five more people were held on Tuesday in the case that is now being probed from a ‘conspiracy’ angle. With this the total number of people arrested has reached seven. Senior police officers said four to five suspects are still absconding.
After the initial probe, police had claimed that the assault on Tiwari’s staff and attack on his house was in retaliation to a road rage dispute. However, they later shifted their probe to the possibility of a conspiracy against the parliamentarian after examining the CCTV footage.
A Delhi Police assistant sub-inspector (ASI), who was seen in the video footage accompanying the attackers into Tiwari’s house, was suspended on Tuesday.
The five arrested on Tuesday were identified as Jagdish Kumar, who claimed to be a cook at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, his cousin Sunil Kumar, and three associates Parshu Ram, Pradeep, and Om Prakash. Jagdish is the brother of Jai Kumar and Jaswant, who were arrested from the crime scene.
Ironically, Jagdish was present at the North Avenue police station along with his associates throughout the day on Monday and even met the police officials but was not arrested.
Braja Kishore Singh, deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi), said the five were held after police scanned the CCTV footage and identified the attackers. “Those held on Monday were caught from the spot. We nabbed five more after we identified them through the footage in which they were seen carrying laathis and rods and breaking into the MP’s house,” said the DCP.
Around 1am on Monday, Tiwari’s driver, driving a Scorpio, allegedly hit the WagonR car being driven by Jai Kumar some 10 metres from the MP’s house. The WagonR car overturned and the driver was injured. Tiwari was not inside the car at the time.
An argument broke out between the occupants of the two cars. Tiwari’s men left the scene and went inside the MP’s house. Jai Kumar called his family members and associates. Together, they entered the house.
They assaulted Tiwari’s personal assistant Abhinav and cook Ashok Pathak. The attackers allegedly ransacked Tiwari’s office and bedroom, said police.
On Tuesday, a team of the special cell on Tuesday visited Tiwari’s house to evaluate the risk the parliamentarian has after the Sunday’s attack. The vulnerability analysis on Tiwari was conducted after he wrote a letter to the Delhi Police commissioner and asked for security enhancement, said a police officer.
“I have been seeking security upgrade for long. After the early Sunday morning incident, a letter has again been written to the Delhi Police asking for security enhancement at my residence after reviewing threat perception,” said Tiwari, president, Delhi BJP. Sources say Tiwari’s present X-category security may be upgraded to Z-category. With reference to the news article titled ‘Man battles odds to cast his vote, wife presses
EVM button for him’ dated April 26, HT inadvertently mentioned Jamia Nagar resident Aas Mohammed was born without both arms. Mohammed’s counsel, A Aleem, clarified Mohammed’s arms were amputated because of electrocution in January 2007. His case FIR 104/07 is registered at Sarita Vihar police station. The error is regretted. “Other women can draw from this incident to stand up for their dignity,” he added.
Drug addiction has become a major problem in Punjab over the last decade. The issue hit headlines across the country after investigations allegedly exposed a nexus between drug dealers, police officers and politicians – especially those from the previous regime.
The Punjab Opioid Dependence Survey, carried out by NGO workers and AIIMS experts last year, put the number of drug addicts in the state at 2.3 lakh and the total number of users at an estimated 8.6 lakh. The survey also reported high prevalence among the youth, with 55% of the addicts hailing from rural areas.