<p>Vishal Thakur during a BJP rally. (Facebook)<br></p>

AGRA: Vishal Thakur , the right-wing supporter who gave the call for the ' tiranga yatra ' in Kasganj on Republic Day , has been absconding since the clashes. Police said though he has not been booked, a manhunt is on to nab Vishal.

An exclusive video accessed by TOI purportedly shows Vishal Thakur with Chandan Gupta, who was later killed in the violence, on a bike during the 'tiranga yatra'.

Gupta and Thakur, in fact, can be purportedly seen at the forefront of heated altercation with a Muslim group.

Moments before the violence began, youths in the rally can be heard shouting, "Hindustan mein rahna hoga toh vande mataram kahna hoga" (if one wants to stay in India, one will have to chant vande mataram). In response, Muslim youths can be heard shouting "anti-Modi" slogans.

Before the end of the 1 minute 46 second clip, a youth, allegedly part of the yatra, can be seen hitting a Muslim boy after which the clash breaks out.

Two days before the yatra, Thakur had posted a 44-second video on his Facebook page on January 24, asking youths to join the rally.

A local source told TOI that Thakur is well connected with local BJP leaders. "One can still see pictures on Thakur's Facebook page, in which he is standing beside senior BJP leaders and even MLAs," he said.

Kasganj superintendent of police Piyush Srivasatav said, "We are investigating the matter to ascertain the role of Thakur in the clashes."

Notably, Thakur has not been named in any of the 11 FIRs filed in the R-Day violence here in which 21-year-old Chandan Gupta was killed.

City kotwali station officer Ripudaman Singh, who had filed five FIRs in the case and didn't mention Thakur's name in any of them, said, "Since nobody had come forward to file any complaint against him, we didn't file any FIR. But we are probing the matter. He is absconding."

