A 26-year-old man was arrested today, 48 hours after a group of kanwariyas, vexed over a car driver allegedly hitting one of them, vandalised the vehicle in west Delhi. The incident took place on Tuesday on a stretch of a busy road near Moti Nagar metro station causing a traffic snarl and forcing some of the commuters to take a detour. The accused, Rahul Billa, was identified after scanning CCTV footages and registers of nine kanwar camps on Najafgarh Road and arrested around 6.30 pm today, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Vijay Kumar said.

Billa is a resident of Uttam Nagar and has been involved in thefts previously, the police said. He had brought a kanwar and was accompanying the group which orchestrated the violence, Kumar said. During interrogation, Billa told the police that one of the kanwariyas had sustained injury to his hand after the car brushed past him. A rumour soon spread in the group that the kanwariya had been thrashed and subsequently the others gathered there.