Delhi Police Commissioner SN Shrivastava has said that a conspiracy was being hatched to unleash violence in the national capital after the Republic Day mayhem. He said that the 'toolkit' leak on the internet, however, foiled the bid. The top cop said that misinformation was being spread after January 26 to trigger riots similar to northeast Delhi in February 2020. Delhi witnessed communal riots in February last year after clashes between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled, leaving at least 53 people dead.
"Last year, rumours were spread after northeast Delhi riots to unleash violence again. Similarly, a conspiracy was hatched after January 26 violence to trigger riots in Delhi on February 4-5 by spreading misinformation through toolkit. But it was foiled after the toolkit was leaked," Shrivastava said, adding that he doesn't consider the Republic Dy violence as an intelligence failure. He claimed that police had credible inputs about possible disruptions by anti-social elements during the tractor parade of farmers to press for their demand on the farm laws.
Thousands of protesting farmers had clashed with the police during the tractor parade called by farmer unions on January 26 to highlight their demand for repeal of the three farm laws. Protesters deviated from the designated route for the proposed tractor parade and barged into the Red Fort. They also attacked cops, vandalised police vehicles and the ticket counter at the Red Fort. Some of them hoisted religious flags at Red Fort, the Mughal era monument from where the Prime Minister addresses the nation on Independence Day. The incident left over 400 cops injured.
A major controversy erupted later after Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg shared the "toolkit" to lend her support to the farmers' agitation. In the document, various urgent actions, including creating a Twitter storm and protesting outside Indian embassies, were listed which were needed to be taken to support the farmers' protest. The toolkit has been cited by some critics as a "proof" of her conspiracy to fuel protests in India.
Speaking about the progress in the ongoing investigation, he said that 152 people have been arrested so far in connection with the Republic Day violence.
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