A 21-year-old man was arrested on Friday afternoon for making claims on social media regarding guns and explosives were being carried in an auto-rickshaw to the G20 Summit venue at Pragati Maidan, the Delhi Police said.
Police said that the suspect Kuldeep Sah made these claims on social media website X (formerly known as Twitter) in an attempt to frame his neighbour with whom he had a dispute.
“Sah was involved in frequent quarrels with his neighbour Harcharan Singh over parking of auto-rickshaw. So, he posted about guns and explosives being moved to the summit venue in that three-wheeler,” said a senior police officer not authorised to speak to the media.
Sah lives with his mother in the Shradhdhanand JJ Colony of Bhalswa Dairy and is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in computer application, the officer said.
Harcharan Singh, an auto-rickshaw driver, lives in the same neighbourhood. “For the last month or so, Singh began parking his auto-rickshaw in a common area near their homes because of construction nearby. Though the three-wheeler was not in front of Sah’s house, he objected to Singh’s parking. That was leading to frequent quarrels between them,” the officer said.
“On Friday, Sah decided to seek revenge by implicating him in a fake case. Since he posts frequently on X, he took to the website to post the registration number and a photo of the auto-rickshaw and claimed that it was on its way to the venue,” the officer said.
Since the Delhi Police was tagged in the post, they immediately sent an alert about the movement of the auto-rickshaw. “We were on the lookout for the auto-rickshaw as well as for the person who shared the alert. We eventually found the auto-rickshaw parked in its usual spot, and the person who alerted to be a resident of the same neighbourhood,” said the officer.
Once a search of the vehicle revealed nothing suspicious, its owner Singh was questioned. That is when the history of his quarrel with Sah emerged, the officer said, adding that Sah was subsequently arrested. The auto-rickshaw was generally used for transporting clothes to Chandni Chowk, police said.
“Legal action is being taken against him,” said Ravi Kumar Singh, deputy commissioner of police (outer-north).
A case under sections 506 (criminal intimidation) and 507 (criminal intimidation by an anonymous communication) of the Indian Penal Code was registered at Bhalswa Dairy police station.
