The Youth Congress protest at the India AI summit on Friday was inspired by Nepal's violent Gen Z movement that toppled the government there, Delhi police told the court on Saturday. The police claimed that there was a larger conspiracy behind the protests at the venue.
When the police were questioned on the 5-day custody of the accused, the investigating officer said that there is a deep conspiracy and said that the accused fled the scene and that the custody is needed for a proper investigation.
“This is a larger conspiracy that has taken inspiration from the Gen Z protests in Nepal. The accused need to be confronted with each other as well as with digital evidence. This is a very important investigation,” police said, according to a report by News18.
The authorities also informed the court that the investigators are examining the funding sources behind the protests, including those of the t-shirts, which contained messages against PM Modi. And slogans like “the PM is compromised”, India-US trade deal, and the ‘Epstein files.”
Three policemen were reportedly injured, and police are reportedly trying to recover the accused's mobile phones to verify whether they recovered funding.
The t-shirts were printed by four people who came from four different locations.
Around 10 activists from the Congress’s youth wing were arrested on Friday after they staged a shirtless protest and raised slogans which carried images of the PM and US President Donald Trump.
They were detained for disrupting the event, which was attended by global tech leaders like Sam Altman and Sundar Pichai.
BJP leaders called the protest anti-national and accused the Congress of harming the country’s image. The party held counter-protests across multiple states.
The protesters allegedly registered online to obtain QR codes to enter the venue before staging the protest at Hall 5.
They also got into a heated argument with some of the attendees before being taken away by security.