Rajesh Khimji, who allegedly attacked Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta, was seen in CCTV footage surveying her home before the attack. CCTV camera footage has emerged, purportedly showing Rajesh Khimji – the man accused of attacking Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta – conducting a recce of her Shalimar Bagh residence on August 19, a day before the incident at a Jan Sunvai event.
Sources in the Delhi BJP said the attacker first gave Rekha Gupta some papers during the public hearing and then allegedly attacked her. The accused, Rajesh (41), who resided with his wife, son and parents at Gokul Park on Kotharia Road in Gujarat’s Rajkot city.
According to reports, the man had approached the Jan Sunvai with a plea seeking the release of a relative lodged in jail. He was detained soon after the incident and taken to Civil Lines police station for questioning. Following the attack, senior officials, including the Delhi Police Commissioner, Chief Secretary and minister Parvesh Sahib Singh, reached CM Gupta’s residence.
Delhi minister Parvesh Sahib Singh Varma earlier claimed that the accused in the Rekha Gupta attack case had conducted a recce of her residence for the past 24 hours and was plotting to meet her. He added that the accused reached Rekha Gupta’s Shalimar Bagh residence for the recce. He stated that the accused spent the night near her residence and attacked her during the public meeting.
“Now, it has been found out that that person was doing a recce for 24 hours to find out how to meet the Chief Minister. He even did a recce till CM Rekha Gupta’s house in Shalimar Bagh. Yesterday, he spent the night in the nearby Civil Lines area, and when he came today morning, he did not have any papers in his hand. There was no such issue, and he attacked as soon as he met her,” Varma told reporters.
My son has no political links: Mother
The mother of the accused claimed her son was not affiliated to any political party and had gone to Delhi to protest against the Supreme Court’s order on stray dogs. According to a senior police officer, the accused was detained and was being interrogated. After he was taken into custody, the Rajkot police reached his residence and questioned his mother Bhanuben Sakaria. Later talking to reporters, Bhanuben claimed her son, who is an auto-rickshaw driver, was not affiliated to any political party.
She further claimed that her son is an animal lover who went to Delhi to protest the recent Supreme Court order to relocate all stray dogs from thestreets of the national capital to shelters. “He loves dogs, cows and birds. That is why he was upset after the SC said all the stray dogs in Delhi should be captured. He went to Haridwar a few days back and then told us over phone that he will go to Delhi to participate in protests in support of dogs,” she said. “That’s all he told us over the phone when we asked when he would return,” Bhanuben said.
