Man behind metro graffiti targeting Kejriwal arrested in Bareilly

The Delhi Police on 22 May, Wednesday, arrested a 33-year-old man from Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly for allegedly drawing anti-Arvind Kejriwal graffiti in stations of Delhi Metro and inside its coaches, an officer said.

The accused, identified as Ankit Goel, wrote the messages and posted their photographs on his Instagram account, the officer said.

On Monday, 20 May, several pictures of the graffiti targeting the Delhi chief minister went viral on social media, eliciting sharp condemnation from the Aam Aadmi Party.

Soon after, a CCTV video of the act also surfaced online, showing a man writing on the wall of a metro station.

Goel, a loan manager in a government bank in Bareilly, made a round trip to write these messages, the officer said.

Goel told the police that he used to be an AAP supporter but became disaffected due to the "recent developments" in the party, the officer said.

The messages scribbled inside metro trains and at stations were shared on the Instagram account "ankit.goel_91".

One of the messages written inside a metro coach read: "Kejriwal, Dilli chhor dijiye (Kejriwal, leave Delhi). Please. Otherwise, you will have to remember three slaps, which you planted (sic) before the election. Now the real and actual punch/slap will be there soon. Today's meeting at Jhandewalan... Ankit.Goel_91."