New Delhi: The Delhi Police’s Special Cell on Tuesday morning arrested Deep Sidhu, who has been accused along with Lakha Sidhana by farmers’ unions and others of orchestrating the violence at the Red Fort on Republic Day (January 26).According to news agency PT, the arrest was made by a team of the Delhi Police’s Special Cell. Deputy commissioner of police (special cell) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav said Sidhu was arrested from the Karnal bypass at 10:40 pm on Monday, adding that he was wanted in connection with the case of instigating the crowd at the Red Fort on Republic Day.“The Crime Branch will investigate his role in detail,” the DCP said.Asked where he was hiding after the January 26 violence, Yadav said the investigation is in an initial stage.“Sidhu was in contact with a woman friend who lives in California. He used to make videos and send it to her, and she used to upload them on his Facebook account,” police sources told PTI. Sidhu kept changing his location to evade arrest.Earlier, the police had announced Rs 1 lakh as a reward for anyone with information on Sidhu’s whereabouts, as he had been on the run after being seen at the Red Fort.On the day of the tractor rally, at the Red Fort, a group of protesters hoisted the Sikh religious flag along with the farmers’ union flag on a pole just below the tricolour flying atop the main dome of the Red Fort building. A section of farmers at the site itself made their disapproval quite apparent and urged protesters to come down from the poles and ramparts.Videos of actor Deep Sidhu at the Red Fort urging protests to hoist the Nishan Sahib went viral.Also read: Why Was the Red Fort Left Unguarded When Delhi Was on ‘High Alert’?The farmers’ unions accused him of being a tout of the government and acting at the behest of the BJP to malign the farmers’ movement. The unions also questioned the intentions of the Delhi Police for not being able to control the situation. According to agitating unions, the Delhi Police gave a free pass to Deep Sidhu and other ‘miscreants’.In response, Sidhu later released a video on social media saying that he has dirt on farmers’ union leaders which he will share when the “right time” comes. According to Sidhu, the union leaders had been making many provocative speeches from the stages at the protest sites in the run up to the January 26 tractor rally.Sidhu’s disagreements with farmers’ union were visible even before the tractor rally. As The Wire has reported before, on January 25, Sidhu had urged the protesters at Singhu border in Punjabi, “Eh rest karan da sama nahi, barricade todan da sama hai…. Pehla sanu Ring Road de dita, hun mana karde a (This is not the time to rest but to break the barricades… First, they gave us Ring Road, now they have refused).” On hearing his words, several groups of protesters had forced him off the stage.Farmers had suspected even before that Sidhu may be close to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Sidhu had campaigned for BJP MP from Gurdaspur Sunny Deol in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. However, Sunny Deol has been denying any connection with Sidhu following the controversy. To prove his association with the BJP, farmers’ union leaders and supporters had also circulated photos of Sidhu with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.A day before Sidhu’s arrest, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had alleged in the Lok Sabha that “forces within the government” were responsible for the Red Fort violence. A joint parliamentary committee probe into this “big conspiracy” was needed, he said.“With such a strong Home Minister like Amit Shah, how can some people reach the Red Fort, that too on January 26 when the highest level of security was in place in Delhi. Why isn’t there a proper investigation into it. It is actually a big, well-planned conspiracy to defame the farmers. The fact is that you have sent some vandals to the Red Fort to create vandalism. Forces within the government are behind it,” he alleged.(With PTI inputs)