Four days after members of the Hindu Raksha Dal publicly claimed responsibility for painting hate slogans along the Delhi-Dehradun highway – and defended their actions in media interviews – no arrests have been made.

The incident took place around 11 pm on Thursday on the Delhi-Dehradun highway in Saharanpur’s Biharigarh area. An FIR under Section 353(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita was filed against unidentified persons on a complaint by an NHAI employee from Haridwar. The graffiti has since been painted over.

A video of this incident was widely circulated the next day. It showed women scrawling messages along the road, declaring that “this road is not for Muslims”. Bhupendra Tomar, alias Pinki Chaudhary, who heads the organisation, openly took credit for the act last Friday, claiming that “jihadis” were “taking advantage of all the government facilities”.

In a conversation with the BBC journalist Dilnawaz Pasha, Shraddha Singh, identified as the Uttarakhand state president of the Hindu Raksha Dal, later confirmed her involvement in the incident. “Yes, we wrote that this road is not for Muslims,” she said, adding that they could write similar messages on a mosque if they wished. In the same video, her colleague Sandhya Rajput is heard saying, “This country is ours, we can do anything; Muslims cannot do anything. Muslims are just tenants here.”

Despite these public admissions, police are yet to make any arrest.

The SHO of Biharigarh police station told Newslaundry that “three names have surfaced” but suggested action would have to wait. “We’re all busy with Holi right now. We’ll be able to reveal the actual situation only on March 5 or 6, after Holi,” he said. Asked why no action had been taken even after those allegedly involved identified themselves in widely shared videos, he responded: “The video coming out is a different matter. We will clarify everything on March 6.”

Newslaundry had earlier reported that Pinki Chaudhary faces 37 FIRs. The latest episode adds to ongoing questions about enforcement.

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