By Zafar Abbas

New Delhi, Feb 9 ( IANS): When an emotional video was uploaded from Deep Sidhu's Facebook page, all he expected was thousands of 'likes' and 'comments'. However, a team of Delhi Police's Special Cell got active to trace the IP address of the location from where the videos were being uploaded.

The technical team soon unearthed that the videos were being uploaded from California in the United States. The Delhi Police that had been so far clueless at last had this piece of information to develop and base its investiagtion upon to trace the whereabouts of Sidhu, wanted in the Red Fort violence case of January 26.

Sources said Sidhu's FB video was allgedly upoaded by the actor's woman friend from California. Her role is also under the scanner. The Crime Branch is verifying who else helped Sidhu in uploading the videos and provided him shelter while he was wanted in the Delhi violence case. A reward of one lakh was also declared on his arrest.

The Special Cell team succeeded at 10:30 pm on Monday night and Sidhu was nabbed. Hours after the arrest from Haryana's Karnal, the Delhi Police got his custody for seven days.

The Delhi Police said in court that Sidhu was the main instigator in the case. The Crime Branch will now be taking him to various places in Punjab, Haryana and Mumbai to ascertain where the Punjabi actor-cum-activist spent his days on the run.

According to sources, Sidhu switched off his mobile phone which he was using on January 26 and instead used other phones when he got a whiff that the police were looking for him on the basis of an FIR registered in the Red Fort violence case. He was alone when he was nabbed from Karnal.

"He was a prominent player behind the Republic Day violence...who had been instigating youngsters with his provocative speeches and stardom even when he was hiding from the law," said Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, DCP Special Cell.

The Delhi Police had named Sidhu and gangster-turned-activist Lakka Sadana in an FIR lodged in connection with the Red Fort incident on January 26. According to the FIR, he was present at the Red Fort when a religious flag and a farmers' flag were put on the flagpole at the historic monument.

The police would also ask him about the role of others seen with him in the video and more arrests are likely. As on February 9, a total of 131 people have been arrested by the Delhi Police so far, in connection with the January 26 violence.