The Delhi Police have made several arrests after posters criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi were found across the city.
QNI reported that 17 people were arrested, while NDTV said the police made at least 12 arrests. The Indian Express put the number at nine.
These posters were seen in parts of the national capital like Shahdara, Rohini, Rithala, and Dwarka over the past few days.
The posters questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi for exporting vaccines amid the massive second wave of the coronavirus in India.
The black colour posters read in Hindi, “Modi ji, Hamare bacchon ki vaccine videsh kyu bhej diya (Modi Ji, why did you send the vaccines meant for our kids to foreign countries)?”
FIR under sections of Prevention of Defacement of Property Act:
Police registered the FIRs under sections of the Prevention of Defacement of Property Act. The number of first information reports (FIRs) and arrests could increase in the coming days.
Since the legal sections mentioned in the FIRs were all bailable, a majority of those arrested till Saturday afternoon were released on bail from the concerned police stations itself. Those arrested after Saturday afternoon were likely to be released by late in the night after completing the legal formalities, the officers said.
The police are trying to ascertain if all the posters were printed at one printing press and whether the order for the same was given by an individual or any political party. However, the initial investigations in most of the registered cases and interrogation of the arrested people have not yielded much of a result.
A few of the arrested persons claimed that they were given money for pasting the posters. The police are now trying to identify the people who paid the money. Their questioning may lead to the key players behind the critical posters, the officers said.
