Went to Red Fort as everyone was going there; had no bad intentions: Deep Sidhu tells cops

Officials of Delhi Police's Crime Branch on Wednesday said that actor-activist Deep Sidhu, who was arrested for the violence at the Red Fort on Republic Day, has told them that he had "no bad intentions" and went to the historic monument as everybody was going there.

'Had no bad intentions': Deep Sidhu

Sidhu was questioned on Wednesday about his whereabouts and acts at the Red Fort on January 26, they said. The actor-activist was sent to seven-day police custody on Tuesday by a court in the national capital following his arrest a day earlier from Karnal bypass in connection with the violence at the Red Fort. Sidhu, according to police, was "a prominent player" behind the January 26 incident.

Following his arrest by the Delhi Police, he was handed over to the Crime Branch, which is probing the case in connection with the violence and vandalism at the Red Fort. "On the first day of police remand, the focus of investigation remained on how Sidhu reached the Red Fort and his activities there on the day of the incident," news agency PTI quoted a senior police officer as saying.

Sidhu initially denied being present at Singhu border on January 25 but after the police presented evidence, he admitted that he was present at the farmers' protest site but slept at a spot a bit away from there. He claimed that when he woke up on January 26, there were two-three missed calls and messages on his mobile phone about people heading to the Red Fort, so he too reached there with his three friends using his mobile phone to navigate.

"Sidhu and his friends left Singhu border at around 11 am in a vehicle and reached the Red Fort at around 1 pm. After violence broke out there, they returned to the border in the same vehicle," he said. When questioned about his role in the flag hoisting incident at the fort, he denied his involvement and claimed that he did not gather or instigate the crowd, the officer said.

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According to the officer, when asked why he went to the Red Fort when it did not figure in the route approved by authorities for the tractor parade, Sidhu claimed that since everybody was going, he too went there but had no "bad intentions". While on the run, Sidhu kept switching his locations between Haryana and Punjab, police said, adding that the hunt for his three friends is on.

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Police had announced a cash reward of Rs 1 lakh for information leading to Sidhu's arrest. After the January 26 violence, which had leftover 500 security personnel injured and one protester dead, the 36-year-old actor-activist was posting videos on social media. However, Sidhu's counsel had on Tuesday claimed that he had nothing to do with the violence and was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Earlier, sources had told Republic that Deep Sidhu was posting videos on Facebook via an actor friend in the US to whom he was sending the videos via Telegram. He had allegedly also sent his wife to Bihar in a bid to not be caught.

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Tens of thousands of farmers broke barriers to storm the national capital on January 26 with their tractors to highlight their demands dissolving into unprecedented scenes of anarchy as they fought with police, overturned vehicles and delivered a national insult hoisting a religious flag from the ramparts of the Red Fort, a place reserved for India's Tricolour. Clashes broke out in multiple places, leading to violence in well-known landmarks of Delhi and its suburbs, amid waves of violence that ebbed and flowed through the day.

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(With agency inputs)