Delhi BJP leaders on Monday claimed links between Jahangirpuri violence accused Md Ansar and the ruling AAP, saying police should probe why ‘masterminds’ of the incident were “found associated with a particular party”. In a letter to AAP supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor asked him to expel Ansar from the party.

“Delhiites want a reply from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leadership over the involvement of the youth, apparently an AAP worker, in the Jahangirpuri riots. Earlier too, we saw AAP councilor Tahir Hussain as the main accused of 2020 Delhi riots,” Kapoor said in the letter.

Reacting to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) allegations, AAP leader and Delhi minister Satyendar Jain told reporters, “I think he (Ansar) must be linked to the BJP since the saffron party knows the inside story.”

Clashes broke out between two communities during a Hanuman Jayanti procession in northwest Delhi’s Jahangirpuri on Saturday, in which eight police personnel and a local were injured.

The Delhi Police has so far held 22 people and apprehended two juveniles in connection with the incident. According to them, Md Ansar and Md Aslam were the main conspirators who got to know about the ‘Shobha Yatra’ on April 15 and hatched up a conspiracy to create trouble.

Manoj Tiwari, BJP MP from northeast Delhi that was rocked by communal violence in 2020, said, “The mastermind of the attack in Jahangirpuri — Md Ansar — has been found to be a worker of AAP. There are evidences of this in the form of photographs. Tahir Hussain who was the mastermind of the Delhi riots in 2020 was also an AAP councilor. Is AAP running a riots factory?”

He reiterated that illegal immigrants living in the city were a big challenge for police and law and order.

“AAP has fond ties with them because they work for it. Their Aadhaar and voter cards are prepared easily. The police and intelligence agencies should probe as to why the masterminds of incidents of riots are found to be associated with the AAP,” Tiwari alleged.

Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta had on Sunday alleged that Ansar was an AAP activist and had relations with party MLAs. He had also claimed that the violence in Jahangirpuri was the result of the AAP government aiding illegal stay of Rohingya and Bangladeshi immigrants.

Meanwhile, Satyendar Jain said the law and order situation is not good in Delhi and answers in this regard should be sought from Union Home Minister Amit Shah under whom the city police functions.

“Ask the home minister, under whom the (Delhi) police comes, why is he not improving the law and order situation,” he told reporters.

Earlier, Delhi Police Commissioner Rakesh Asthana, in a press briefing, said a thorough probe was undertaken in the violence in Jahangirpuri and no one, irrespective of their class, creed and religion would be spared if found involved in it.