Spl cell takes over Umar Khalid attack case

The Delhi Police on Tuesday handed over the probe into the murder attempt on student-activist Umar Khalid to its elite Special Cell even as investigators looked for clues to identify the culprit from a CCTV footage.

Khalid was attacked by an unidentified man on Monday afternoon outside Constitution Club, 500 metres away from Parliament House. The attacker attempted to open fire at the student leader, who was there to attend a conference on 'Freedom from Fear'. Khalid escaped unhurt.

Police had recovered a pistol from the spot as the man fled leaving the fire-arm when Khalid's friends tried to chase him. A preliminary forensic examination claimed that the pistol had jammed.

In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Khalid said, "With the repeated death threats against me, and having seen the assassinations of one activist after the other in the last few years, I somehow knew that someday a gun may be turned against me too. But can I say that I was ready for this? Can anyone ever say that they are ready for such an eventuality for real? No."

Real culprits

"I want to state here that if something untoward happened yesterday, or if it were to happen tomorrow, do not just hold that “unidentified gunman” responsible. The real culprits are those, who from their seats of power, have been breeding an atmosphere of hatred, bloodlust and fear. The real culprits are those who have provided an atmosphere of complete impunity for assassins and mob lynchers," he said.

"The real culprits are those spokespersons of the ruling party and the prime time anchors and TV channels who have spread canards about me, branded me anti-national based on lies and virtually incited a lynch-mob against me. This has specifically made my life extremely vulnerable," he added.