NEW DELHI: Small-time actor Deep Sidhu, who was on the run after allegedly instigating a mob to desecrate the Tricolour at the Red Fort on Republic Day, was arrested from his hideout in Haryana’s Karnal on Monday night. Sidhu carried a reward of Rs 1 lakh.
A team of Southwestern Range of Special Cell led by Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Sanjeev Yadav made the arrest around 10.30 pm at Karnal, where he had been hiding for the past 15 days. However, he kept releasing provocative videos to instigate Punjab and Haryana youth, police said.
Sidhu was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Prigya Gupta at the Tis Hazari Court on Tuesday afternoon and was remanded in seven-day police custody. Crime branch officials claimed that the actor had instigated the mob to break the barricades with tractors and deviate from the police-approved route. DCP Special Cell Yadav said Sidhu had been changing his location to evade arrest.
Sources claimed Sidhu’s friends had refused him accommodation and help. Sidhu was in touch with a California-based woman, who helped him upload the provocative videos through Facebook when he was in hiding.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court stayed the arrest of Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor and six senior journalists, including Rajdeep Sardesai, who were booked for wrongly tweeting/retweeting that a youth driving a tractor was felled by police bullets during the January 26 tractor rally in Delhi. A three-judge bench said the stay on the arrest will continue till the next hearing after two weeks.