Youth held in theft case, was booked for endangering country’s sovereignty in separate FIR: Rajkot police

Sources in the Gujarat Police told the paper that Kundha made the claims of “desecration” after seeing some videos on social media shown to him by a friend.

While Kundha is a resident of Rajkot city, police said that he had been working with a travel firm in Hyderabad for the past several months.

While the videos in question have since been removed from his social media handle, another video, uploaded on March 10, purportedly shows Kundha apologising to Sanghavi and the Rajkot Police.

Kundha’s arrest, however, came following an FIR filed against him at Rajkot Taluka police station on March 11, under charges of theft on the basis of a complaint by his friend, Salman Kareem Nakum, who alleged that he had given the keys to his house to Asif Kundha when his entire family had gone to attend a marriage function. The FIR alleges that Kundha had stolen Rs 1.5 lakh from his home, which was the amount received by his father as his share after the government acquired his grandfather’s property “to build the Rajkot International Airport at Hirasar.”

However, there was an FIR against Kundha on March 9, at the CID Cybercrime police station in Gandhinagar on behalf of the State, where Kundha has been booked under BNS sections 152 (committing acts endangering India’s sovereignty, unity and integrity), 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on the basis of religion, race, place of birth, language), 353(2) (making or circulating false information, rumors, or alarming news that promotes hatred or enmity between different groups; as well as under IT Act sections 67 and 67(a) (which deals with publishing or transmitting obscene or sexually explicit material), The Indian Express has learnt.

Notably, BNS section 152 replaced IPC section 124A, the colonial era law on sedition. A Supreme Court bench consisting of the current Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, had, back in August 2025, questioned if the “potentiality of abuse” of the law could be grounds to declare it unconstitutional.

The Indian Express reached out to an officer at the CCoE who is investigating this case, but the officer declined to comment on the case, deeming it “sensitive” and saying that an official statement would be published after the CCoE arrested Kundha from the custody of the Rajkot City Police.

Meanwhile, PI Jayesh Kaila of the Rajkot City Cybercrime Police told the Indian Express that they had been looking to arrest Kundha for the theft case lodged against him in their jurisdiction and declined to comment on the case against him in Gandhinagar.

However, an official statement of the Rajkot City Police in connection with this case stated, “On the social media platform… The accused has committed a serious criminal act by spreading rumours on the basis of religion and spreading hatred and enmity among people, inciting violent activities, hurting religious sentiments and encouraging separatist activities and threatening the unity and integrity of India through video posts. A case of theft has been registered against the ID holder at Gandhinagar, CID Cyber Crime Police Station under BNS sections 152, 196, 353(2) and IT Act sections 67 and 67(A). The accused was also booked by Rajkot Taluka Police for theft.”