Police probe Twitter claim over Rohingya camp fire

new delhi — Police are investigating a fire that destroyed a Rohingya settlement in New Delhi last weekend after a Twitter user Manish Chandela, BJP youth wing leader, claimed responsibility for setting the blaze.

About 40,000 Rohingya from Myanmar have settled in India in recent years after fleeing violence, persecution and poverty at home.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has taken a tough stance on them since coming to power in 2014, calling them a security threat who should be deported.

The fire started early on Sunday and engulfed the shantytown, forcing its 226 residents to flee. No one was hurt but many of the Rohingya lost UN refugee documents.

It was the fourth fire in the settlement in six years and police said they were investigating its cause and the claim of responsibility.

“This is an open-ended investigation and we are looking into the Twitter matter,” Chinmoy Biswal, a deputy commissioner of police, said.

Earlier the All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM) on Thursday wrote to Delhi Police Commissioner Amulya Patnaik seeking appropriate action against Chandela.

“This is to bring it to your notice that Manish Chandela, who is a member of the BJP’s youth wing Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), has openly claimed on his Twitter handle ‘@Chandela_BJYM’ that ‘Yes, we burnt the houses of Rohingya terrorists’,” the AIMMM, an umbrella body of various Muslim organisations, said in the letter. —

This is an openended investigation and we are looking into the Twitter matter.” Chinmoy Biswal, deputy commissioner of police