Flanked by Followers, Hindu Raksha Dal Chief Surrenders before Delhi Police in Jantar Mantar Hate Speech Case

Followed by hundreds of his followers, Hindu Raksha Dal chief Bhupinder Tomar alias Pinki Chaudhary, who was accused of raising inflammatory and anti-Muslim slogans at a rally in Jantar Mantar, surrendered before the Delhi Police on Tuesday.

Tomar reached Mandir Marg police station along with his supporters Raising slogans. He surrendered at the station after evading arrest for more than 20 days. Later, he was handed over to the Connaught Place police Station. He will be produced before the court on Wednesday.

The Delhi High Court on August 21 refused to grant Tomar anticipatory bail, following which the police conducted raids to arrest him. Refusing to grant him interim protection from arrest, the court had said, "we are not a Taliban State".

Additional Sessions Judge Anil Antil dismissed Tomar’s bail application and said that in the past such incidents have flared communal tensions leading to riots and loss to life and property, according to PTI.

The police had registered a case against Tomar after a video emerged showing anti-Muslim slogans being raised during the protest held at Jantar Mantar on August 8.

Before surrendering, Tomar had released a video on social media refuting all the allegations against him.

"Neither I, nor anyone else in my organisation did anything wrong at Jantar Mantar. I respect the court and will surrender on August 31 around 12 pm at the Connaught Place Police Station,” he had said in the video. "It is the right of every person to go to court and I did the same. All the allegations against me are false and baseless. I have devoted my life towards Hinduism and Hindutva. As long as I am alive, I will continue to work for my religion,” the Hindu Raksha Dal chief had added 

According to reports, the police said that Tomar revealed during questioning that he was associated with the Hindu Shakti Vahini and through the organisation he allegedly met former Delhi BJP spokesperson and Supreme Court lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay.

Police have so far arrested nine people in the case including Upadhyay, who was granted bail by a Delhi court on August 12. The police have also arrested Uttam Upadhyay (seen raising slogans in the viral video), Ashwini Upadhyay, Preet Singh, Deepak Singh, Deepak Kumar, Vinod Sharma, Vinit Bajpai and Sushil Tiwari, many of whom are associated with different Hindutva organisations.

This is not Tomar’s first time being associated in a controversial incident. Last year, he had claimed in a video that he was responsible for the violence in Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University in January 2020 wherein a masked mob attacked and injured students and teachers in the campus.