AAP members behind posters against Modi, says Delhi police

25 people were arrested in this connection

While criticism mounted on Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah over the arrests of 25 people involved in pasting of posters critical of the Prime Minister, Delhi Police on Sunday claimed that people affiliated to AAP were behind the incident and that they violated Covid-19 lockdown guidelines.

It also accused a section of the media of "merely" showing the arrests of "poor persons", claiming that "some" news reports did not carry the "entire result of the investigation”.

A statement said the investigations have unearthed the involvement of "political persons and leaders of a political party" who have "organised and financed" the defacement of public property during the lockdown.

Read | Arrest me too: Rahul Gandhi challenges Modi, tweets poster that got 15 arrested in Delhi

The police statement came on Sunday evening, a day after media reported about the arrests, as criticism mounted over arresting at least 25 people, including from the economically vulnerable sections.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi joined the protest by tweeting "arrest me too", while AAP also intensified its protest on Sunday with Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia repeating the content of the poster.

"Modiji humare bachon ki vaccine videsh kyu bhej diya? (Prime Minister, why did you send our children to foreign countries?)" read the posters, which led to the arrests.

Police said the posters did not have details of the press or the publisher. In one of the cases registered in Mongolpuri, those people pasting posters told investigators that an AAP worker Arvind Gautam had tasked a graphic designer Rahul for printing and pasting these posters for Rs 9,000. A printing press owner Rajesh Sharma was roped in by Rahul.

The statement said the press owner circumvented rules by not putting the details of his establishment and violated lockdown guidelines by running the press when it was not allowed.

In another case in south Delhi's Khanpur colony, police said, two AAP workers Santosh and Mayank were arrested and they told police that former AAP councillor Sanjay Chaudhary tasked them with pasting posters. Mayank had approached Mohit Chaudhary's press where he gave Rs 4,000 for posters, besides roping in Santosh.

In West Delhi, according to the statement, five persons were named in a case and two of them - Prashant Kumar and Rakesh Joshi are active AAP members.