The Delhi Police on Saturday said they have arrested Hindu Army chief Sushil Tiwari for allegedly shouting inflammatory slogans calling for violence against Muslims at Jantar Mantar on August 8, PTI reported. The Hindu Army is a Right-Wing organisation.

The police reportedly questioned Tiwari, a resident of Lucknow, on Friday night and then arrested him.

Apart from shouting the slogans, Tiwari also mobilised people for the event, The Indian Express quoted a police official as saying.

“We identified Tiwari based on videos of the event on social media and on local enquiry,” a senior police officer told the newspaper. “We found he was in Lucknow and sent a team there to arrest him.”

Tiwari had received an invitation to the August 8 rally at Jantar Mantar on WhatsApp and came to the event to join the remaining accused, a police officer said. The event was organised by former Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Ashwini Upadhyay as part of an effort he called the “Bharat Jodo [Unite India] movement”. It ostensibly aimed to urge the authorities to put an end to “colonial-era laws” by establishing a uniform civil code.

Tiwari reportedly works as a travel agent and often visits Delhi for work, according to The Indian Express.

Hate slogans incident

Videos from the event, which took place less than 2 km from Parliament, showed a group of people shouting slogans such as: “Jab mulle kaate jayenge, Ram-Ram chillayenge [Muslims will chant Ram-Ram when they are slaughtered].”

So far, the police have arrested seven people in connection with the incident.

Upadhayay was arrested on August 10 along with Deepak Singh, Vinod Sharma, Vineet Bajpai, Preet Singh and Deepak Kumar. They were charged with promoting religious enmity and violating Covid-19 protocols.

Upadhayay was granted bail a day later, despite the Delhi Police saying he was a speaker at the event.

However, three others – Deepak Singh, Preet Singh and Vinod Sharma – were denied bail by a metropolitan magistrate court on August 13.