Shaheen Bagh shooter joins BJP, expelled hours later

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday admitted into its fold a man who had allegedly opened fire in the air early this year at an anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protest site in South East Delhi's Shaheen Bagh but cancelled his party membership hours later.

The membership of Kapil Gujjar was cancelled as soon as senior party leaders came to know of his induction into the party, UP BJP's general secretary J P S Rathore told PTI.

"Local leaders had processed the induction. However, as soon as the state leadership got information about it, his membership was cancelled," said Rathore when asked about Gujjar's entry into the BJP.

"Today (on Wednesday), some youths from the BSP joined the BJP. Kapil Gujjar was also there among them. We did not have information about his (Kapil Gujjar's) controversial past about Shaheen Bagh," said BJP's Ghaziabad Mahanagar unit president Sanjeev Sharma earlier in a statement.

"As soon as we got information about the entire incident, the party's state unit leadership cancelled his membership with immediate effect," Sharma added.

A man had allegedly fired two shots in the air on February 1 at Shaheen Bagh area in Delhi's Jamia Nagar, where an anti-CAA protest was on. He was taken into custody soon after he opened fire in the air, eyewitnesses had said.

No one was injured in the incident which occurred at around 5 pm.

According to eyewitnesses, the man, who identified himself as Kapil Gujjar, opened fire close to the police barricades, nearly 250 metres behind the stage. He was overpowered by police personnel and taken into custody.