Two held for vandalising Tiwari’s residence, assaulting his staff

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police on Monday arrested two men who had allegedly barged into the residence of BJP MP Manoj Tiwari and attacked his staff members, late Sunday night.

The accused – who stay at the staff quarters in President Estate – and had an altercation with Tiwari’s staffers after their car brushed past the car in which the duo was travelling.

The accused, identified as brothers Jai Kumar and Jaswant, got agitated and called up their friends who arrived in a tempo armed with iron rods and sticks, and barged into Tiwari’s residence and assaulted his staffers.

The entire act was caught on CCTV cameras, said police.

Delhi Police had initially treated this as a case of road rage, after which several members from BJP accused the police of not treating the case seriously.

Tiwari had himself floated the idea that this was a conspiracy against him and wanted cops to not look at it as an incident of road rage. “It looks like a conspiracy and the police are involved in it. No one should be spared,” Tiwari said.

After increasing pressure on Delhi Police, investigators decided to treat the case as that of a conspiracy, and included sections of rioting, trespass and attempt to commit culpable homicide.

Mukesh Kumar Meena, Special Commissioner of Police, New Delhi range, also said the incident does not appear to be a case of simple road rage. “An accident happened initially. It’s not a case of simple road rage. The attackers collected in an organised way with rods and sticks and then trespassed into the MP’S house,” he added.

The incident occurred around 1.30 am when Tiwari’s staffers were in a vehicle which brushed past the car of the accused while taking a turn near the MP’S residence in North Avenue area of Lutyens’ Delhi, police officials said.

One of the staffers informed cops, who rushed to the spot and nabbed the two main suspects. Police are on the lookout for the other members of the gang.