NEW DELHI: Delhi Police special cell has arrested an operative of banned outfit Sikhs For Justice (SFJ) for allegedly spray-painting pro-Khalistani graffiti and slogans at Metro stations in Delhi last week.Sources said that the prime accused, whose identity has been withheld as of now due to the ongoing operation, was held from Punjab in the early hours of Thursday.
A second suspect was detained on Thursday morning, sources said but cops remained tight-lipped.The SFJ operative had defaced walls of several metro stations with graffiti, causing a major security breach days before the G20 Summit in Delhi.
The SFJ had also released footage of the Shivaji Park and Punjabi Bagh metro stations on YouTube that showed slogans such as Khalistan Zindabad and Punjab Is Not India on the walls.
Delhi Metro police had filed an FIR against the vandalism under IPC sections on provocation for rioting (153) and public mischief (505).
The investigation was transferred to the special cell, officials added.Police had also obtained CCTV camera footage of the stations where the slogans appeared.
The SFJs statement claimed that they had written graffiti at the Shivaji Park, Madipur, Paschim Vihar, Udyog Nagar, Maharaja Surajmal Stadium, Nangloi and Punjabi Bagh metro stations.Police said they had noticed slogans in about four stations on Sunday morning and had them erased.
SFJ general counsel Gurpatwant Singh Pannun said in a statement: "....
Reminding G20 leaders that violence begets violence....
Indian government's use of bullets against pro-Khalistan Sikhs has reached Canada, UK and Australia.
The outfit had recently released kill posters targeting Indian diplomats in foreign missions and threatened to target Union home minister Amit Shah, external affairs minister S Jaishankar and the high commissioner of India in Canada, Sanjay Kumar Verma, holding them responsible for the killing of a member of their outfit, Hardeep Singh Nijjar.Pannun, the US-based founder of SFJ, had released a video offering a $1,25,000 reward to anyone with information on the foreign trips of the ministers and the high commissioner.
Earlier this year, SFJ operatives had spray-painted graffiti in several localities in west Delhi a week ahead of Republic Day.
Delhi Polices special cell had arrested two men Vikram Singh and Balram Singh who were drivers with a prominent hotel in Aerocity.
Pannun had promised to pay Rs 2 lakh but the duo was paid only Rs 2,000.
Investigation in that case had led police to identify a father-son duo based in the US who were close associates of Pannun.
The two had sent money to the foot soldiers for the act, the probe had revealed.
The US-based suspects had been arrested for attacking an Akali Dal leader in America in 2018, an official said.