A man appearing in a viral video threatening to shoot anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protesters if protests turned violent, is an ex cop who voluntarily retired five years ago, Delhi Police told BOOM on Sunday.
A selfie video of a man in uniform angrily ranting against anti-CAA protesters went viral on December 28, 2019. The man identified himself as Rakesh Tyagi in the video. He was arrested on December 28, 2019 by the Delhi Police Cyber Cell but was released on bail the same day.
Tyagi describes himself as a sub inspector with the Delhi Police on his
Facebook profile where he is active.
However, ACP Anil Mittal, public relations officer for the Delhi Police told BOOM, that Tyagi was no longer a part of the force.
"Rakesh Tyagi retired as a constable showing personal grounds five years ago," Mittal said.
Attempts to contact Tyagi through his Facebook profile did not yield any response, till the time of publishing.
The DCP Cyber Crime Cell's official Twitter handle also shared an information bulletin dissociating the organisation from Tyagi.
In an undated video recorded in a moving car, Tyagi can be seen wearing a police uniform as he speaks. ACP Mittal told BOOM that the uniform was seized by the police after the video went viral.
A few seconds into the video, Tyagi specifies that his team had taken orders from the Home Ministry.
"What do you think, the instructions given to us by the DCP was his?" Tyagi says."It was straight from the Home Ministry. And if it is from the Home Ministry, then it has to be followed, and our Constitution has to be saved. Each citizen should be taken care of even though he is a descendant of Akbar or Babur. If I am pelted with stones, then I will shoot them. If someone throws stones at me, then I will collect and give them to the construction of the Ram temple."
Video Sparks Outrage
Tyagi's video comes at a time when Indian police forces are facing flak for their handling of protests.
The video of Rakesh Tyagi was viral with more than 50,000 consolidated views at the time of writing this article. Angry netizens urged Delhi Police to take action against him for posing open threats to protesters as a member of the Indian police services, which are expected to be politically neutral.
A longer version of the same video where Tyagi accuses anti-CAA protesters of being disloyal, has been uploaded on his Facebook account. It has been captioned as, "There has been an uproar over this video in the police station."
Hours after being bailed out, Tyagi recorded a Facebook LIVE video saying he did not regret recording his previous video. According to him, the viral video was shot on December 22. He further challenges the Delhi Police force for arresting him.