COURTESY HT JAN 29

Shameful to call me a traitor: On the run, Sidhu releases video

HT Correspondent

htreporters@hindustantimes.com

New Delhi : Actor-turned-activist Deep Sidhu, who was seen at Red Fort during a violent farmers’ protest, is likely to figure prominently in the list of people the Delhi Police will probe in connection with the mayhem on Republic Day, according to officials aware of the matter.

“He will be probed in two cases by two different units. The crime branch will probe him for the violence at Red Fort. The special cell will probe him for the alleged conspiracy and plans to embarrass the government and the country at an international platform for doing what he did on Tuesday,” one of the officials said.

The officials said they were yet to approach Sidhu, who allegedly led the mob that laid siege to the historic Red Fort, resorted to vandalism, and fought a pitched battle with the police after the protest by farmers against three agricultural laws plunged into chaos.

A video purportedly showing Sidhu at Red Fort has been circulating on social media.

The officials privy to the investigation said Sidhu may not be in Delhi and could have already fled to Punjab or Haryana. Officials posted at the borders have informed the police’s top brass that Sidhu, who was in Singhu (on the Haryana border) on January 26 morning, has not been spotted since that night.

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella group that is organising the ongoing farmers’ protest, at Singhu and Tikri borders, blames Sidhu for the violence and for insulting the national flag at Red Fort.

The SKM is holding meetings with the government on the farm laws that they want scrapped, and agreed to follow certain routes specified by the Delhi Police during their rally on Republic Day. Trouble began after some protesters deviated from the routes agreed upon.

On Thursday, Sidhu denied the charges through a Facebook post. “...We all were peaceful and were exercising our democratic rights to protest peacefully, we were under the leadership of our farmer union leaders. We did not damage property... everything was peaceful nobody disrespected our national flag. Stop portraying this incident in any bad manner or bad light...(sic)”

“...The tricolour was not demeaned, and there was no violence till I was there. Their support for what the public did at the Red Fort would have pressured the government to repeal the black (farm) laws,” Sidhu said. He added that thousands of people had reached there, but there was “no farmer leader”.

They put up the ‘Nishan Sahib’ and a farmer flag at the flagpole to register their protest, said Sidhu.

“If you say by doing so I have turned traitor then those who were present there were traitors too,” said the actor-turned-activist said.

“If you impose all these things on one person and give him a certificate of traitor then I think you should be ashamed of yourself,” he said.