Jagdish Pradhan is a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician and former Member of the Delhi Legislative Assembly from the Mustafabad Vidhan Sabha constituency.

During the Delhi pogrom of February 2020, Pradhan was one of the chief architects of violence. His Hindu nationalist supporters attacked Muslim localities with swords, guns, bombs, rods, chains, and stones. The anti-Muslim pogrom that continued until February 27 left at least 53 people dead, mostly Muslims, and injured another 500.

Pradhan’s name repeatedly came up in testimonies of Muslim survivors of the Delhi pogrom.

Complainants claimed seeing Pradhan’s supporters take part in the rioting. One complainant alleged that the person leading the mob had received a call from Jagdish Pradhan, ordering them to “get rid off Muslims.”

At least three complaints claim that the rioters were people who had been campaigning for Pradhan during the Assembly elections a few weeks earlier.

“Then, along with policemen, some people who used to be seen with Jagdish Pradhan during the elections were walking ahead of the mob. They threw a petrol bomb on the (protest) pandal which caught fire. Then they attacked the women protesters with sticks and swords due to which many elderly women were injured,” one complainant said.

A Hindu mob was throwing bombs from the top of Mohan Nursing Home chanting “Jagdish Pradhan Zindabad.”

“On 24/02/2020, the situation was very bad in the area throughout the day. One could hear chanting of “Jai Shri Ram” from every direction. They (the mob) set fire to the buses of Victoria School near my house. In the evening, I found out that Jagdish Pradhan’s associates had set fire to the mosque near the tyre market as well and its smoke was visible in the air,” another complaint reads.

Till now, Delhi police haven’t filed a single case against Pradhan despite many complaints by the Muslim victims.

References:

https://www.thequint.com/news/politics/delhi-riots-jagdish-pradhan-kapil-mishra-bjp-mla-muslims

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/in-8-delhi-riots-cases-complaints-naming-bjp-leaders-buried-2266374

https://thewire.in/communalism/delhi-riots-2020-victims-allege-police-bias

https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/opinion-mysterious-ghost-informer-behind-delhi-riot-firs-truth-obviously-the-casualty/354213

https://scroll.in/latest/972241/delhi-violence-stop-coercing-false-confessions-to-manufacture-evidence-1000-citizens-tell-police

https://www.huffpost.com/archive/in/entry/hindu-couple-delhi-riots_in_5e65e917c5b6670e72fa8500

https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/article31149756.ece

https://caravanmagazine.in/politics/delhi-police-ignored-complaints-against-kapil-mishra-bjp-leaders-leading-mobs-delhi-violence