Umar Khalid Attack: Accused Fail to Surrender at Punjab Village

When a Delhi Police's Special Cell visited the village of Sikh revolutionary Kartar Singh Sarabha, where they were supposed to surrender, a police officer told them that the duo cannot be located in their village Jhajjar in Haryana either.

New Delhi, Aug 18: Two men, who had claimed to attack student leader Umar Khalid in Delhi last week and announced that they would surrender at a Punjab village on August 17, failed to surrender on Friday. When a Delhi Police’s Special Cell visited the village of Sikh revolutionary Kartar Singh Sarabha, where they were supposed to surrender, a police officer told them that the duo cannot be located in their village Jhajjar in Haryana either.

Identifying themselves as Darvesh Shahpur and Naveen Dalal from Haryana, they said that they will surrender to police at a gurdwara near the house of freedom fighter Kartar Singh Sarabha on Friday. There was, however, no mention of the exact place by the two. The accused said that the attack on Umar Khalid was an Independence Day gift for the citizens.

“We are responsible for the attack on Khalid (outside Constitution Club) that was meant to be a gift to our countrymen before the Independence Day. We appeal to the police to not punish any innocent youngster for our crime,” they said.

“Though we respect the Supreme Court, the Constitution of India and judiciary, we request the government to amend the law so that anti-nationals like Umar Khalid can be punished. Anti-national gangs in the Jawaharlal Nehru University, of which Khalid is a part, are vitiating the atmosphere in the country. We should stop them,” one of the two men said in the video.

Police are trying to verify the authenticity of the video and trying to trace the IP address from where it was uploaded. Khalid was attacked by an unknown assailant carrying a revolver on Monday at a tea stall outside the Constitution Club. Khalid, accused of raising anti-national slogans in 2016, survived the attack. Upon investigation, the police released a CCTV grab of the suspect who attacked Khalid.

The police also said that they were not intimidated of the Monday event which was supposed to be attended by Khalid. The weapon used to attack Umar Khalid has been seized.