Police seek custody to probe T-shirt design, coordination and alleged conspiracy
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday remanded three Youth Congress workers to three days’ police custody in connection with the February 20 “shirtless protest” at the AI Impact Summit at Bharat Mandapam.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Mridul Gupta allowed Delhi Police’s plea for custodial interrogation of Saurabh, Arbaz Khan and Siddharth Avdhut, stating that their custody was required for further investigation. The court directed that they be produced again on March 1 after completion of remand.
The three were brought to Delhi early on Thursday after being arrested from a resort in Rohru in Himachal Pradesh’s Shimla district on Wednesday morning. They were produced before the court under heavy security.
According to the prosecution, Saurabh and Arbaz, residents of Uttar Pradesh, and Siddharth, a resident of Madhya Pradesh, were arrested at about 6.40 am and produced before a Shimla magistrate at 1.40 pm the same day. The magistrate granted transit remand and directed that they be presented before the competent Delhi court within 18 hours.
Police told the court that Siddharth had designed the T-shirts displayed during the protest and that Saurabh had created a WhatsApp group to coordinate the action. Saurabh and Arbaz were present at the venue, the prosecution said, adding that more than one lakh T-shirts had been printed.
“We need to trace the printing source, ascertain the origin and mechanism of the conspiracy, confront them with co-accused, and recover material evidence. Names of others involved have to be identified,” the prosecutor submitted while seeking five days’ custody.
Counsel for the accused opposed the plea, alleging “witch-hunting” and political targeting. “No recovery has been effected and procedures have not been followed. The FIR uses language similar to other political cases. What precedent are we setting?” he argued.
The arrests led to a confrontation between the Delhi Police team and Himachal Pradesh Police on Wednesday. While Delhi Police maintained that it had obtained a valid transit remand, Himachal Pradesh Police alleged procedural lapses and registered a kidnapping case against unidentified Delhi Police personnel. The Delhi team was stopped at multiple locations near Shimla and its vehicles were detained for several hours, officials said.
The court also extended by three days the police custody of two other accused, Ajay Kumar and Raja Gujar, who had been arrested earlier.
Police said 12 persons have been arrested so far in connection with the protest and further investigation is underway.
