AAP leader Dilip Pandey held over Okhla posters

Police said AAP members had put up posters in Jamia making derogatory allusions to Okhla Congress MLA Asif Mohammad and two other Muslim Congress leaders.

Police received complaints about the posters and detained a few AAP members allegedly involved in the act. After questioning Pandey and other AAP members on Friday, police arrested Pandey, Javed, Ram Kumar Jha, Sonu and Ravi Shankar Singh. They have been booked on charges of inciting communal tension under the IPC and sections of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act. They will be produced in Saket Court on Saturday afternoon.

After news of his arrest spread, AAP leaders including Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh and Ashutosh rushed to Jamia Nagar police station. Sisodia said, “A resident of Okhla has come forward to say that he made the poster and he has conveyed this to the Jamia Nagar police. Why then has Dilip been arrested?”

AAP leader Ashutosh said this was a case of political vendetta. “We condemn the politicisation of police by the Centre and demand that Pandey be released .”

An AAP spokesperson said, “Amanullah, an Okhla resident, had sent the poster to another AAP member Javed Khan and in the e-mail Dilip Pandey was ‘CC’ed and tagged. When we asked police, we were told that this was the reason why Dilip was arrested. How can being tagged in an e-mail be a crime?”

A senior police officer at the Jamia Nagar police station said, “It was Javed who had sent the mail and Dilip was tagged in it. We made the arrests solely on the basis of the names tagged in the e-mail. This is all we can say as of now.”