Culprits will be punished regardless of their religion or political affiliations: Amit Shah on Delhi violence

"The perpetrators of the riots will not be spared regardless of their caste, religion or political affiliations. They will be prosecuted and punished through a transparent and scientific investigation so that they feel the fear of law for a long time," Amit Shah said during a discussion on last month's Delhi violence in the Rajya Sabha.

He informed the House that 700 FIRs have been registered so far in connection with the riots and the police did not refuse anyone for lodging a complaint.

"Over 1,900 faces have been recognized by Facial Recognition software inciting violence. These people were spreading arson and breaking infrastructure. They will be dealt with sternly," Shah assured.

"Aadhaar data has not been used in Face Identification process, only Driving license and Voter ID database have been used. However, police must empowered to use scientific methods to bring the culprits to book and should not be stopped in the name of privacy breach," said he.

Without naming any organisation, the Union Home Minister said that the government had "information from several agencies that money had come from abroad and from the rest of the country and was spread in Delhi before the 24th morning."

"All culprits behind the killings of Head Constable Ratan Lal and IB Officer Ankit Sharma have been arrested while the investigations into the wider conspiracy is ongoing," said he.

Last month, the northeast part of Delhi witnessed indiscriminate violence over the new citizenship law in which at least 52 deaths were reported, more than 200 were injured and a huge number of properties were vandalized.

Referring to the Congress' criticisms on the role of Centre during the Delhi violence, Shah said: "People should not point fingers at me or my party or ideology (as) 76 per cent riots took place during the Congress rule."

"We were not in power in 1989 in Delhi, in 1990 at Hyderabad, at 1990 in Aligarh, 92 in Kanpur, at Bhopal in 92, Mumbai in 93. Only during Gujarat  riots we were in power... 76% of the deaths in riots took place Congress rule," he added.