india

Updated: Nov 27, 2018 10:26 IST

A caretaker of a Delhi mosque was caught carrying a live bullet while visiting chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Janata Darbar on Monday morning, police said, six days after a visitor threw chilli powder at the chief minister at Delhi secretariat.

Identified as 39-year-old Mohd Imran, the man was visiting the Janata Darbar with 12 other Imams and Maulvis to seek an increase in the salaries of the Delhi Waqf Board staff.

“The .32 bore live cartridge was recovered from his purse during the search and frisking by the security staff of CM’s residence,” said Harendra Singh, additional deputy commissioner of police (north).

The officer said that Imran is a resident of Loni in Ghaziabad and works as the caretaker (Muezzin) of the Masjid Bawli Wali in Karol Bagh.

“He has claimed he found the bullet in a donation box two-three months ago and he intended to throw it in the Yamuna, but since he was yet to do it, he had kept it in his purse,” Singh said.

Imran told the police that he had forgotten about the bullet. A case under the arms act has been registered against him at Civil Lines police station and he has been arrested.

The arrest came hours after Kejriwal, speaking in Delhi assembly, said, “the string of attacks were planned by the BJP because they cannot see a common man like me as chief minister of Delhi”.

On November 20, a man threw chilli powder at Kejriwal as he was leaving his offices at the Delhi Secretariat for lunch. The attacker has been identified as Anil Kumar Sharma.

Sharma, a Naraina resident, was waiting for the AAP convenor, outside his office at the Delhi secretariat. When Kejriwal stepped out, Sharma walked up to him and said, “Aap hi se umeed hai,” and tried to touch his feet

Sharma had a letter in one hand and chilli powder in the other. He had packed the chilli powder a gutka packet.

Kejriwal stopped Sharma from touching his feet, and while getting up Sharma threw chilli powder at Kejriwal’s face.

This is not the first time that Kejriwal has been attacked. He has earlier had ink, shoes and slippers thrown at him.

Soon after the attack on Kejriwal, AAP accused the BJP of orchestrating these attacks.