Yati Narsinghanand held for Haridwar hate speech too: cops

🔴 The controversial priest of Dasna temple in Ghaziabad, who was the chief organiser of the gathering from December 17-19 at which incendiary speeches were made against Muslims, was arrested in Haridwar late on Saturday evening.

Yati Narsinghanand, Haridwar hate speech, Yati Narsinghanand haridwar hate speech, Indian express news

Yati Narsinghanand. (File photo)

4 min readDehradunJan 17, 2022 10:37 AM IST First published on: Jan 17, 2022 at 03:22 AM IST

Yati Narsinghanand was arrested in connection with certain objectionable remarks he made on January 4, but when he was presented before a court, the FIR registered against him in last month’s Haridwar dharma sansad case was also mentioned, police said on Sunday.

The controversial priest of Dasna temple in Ghaziabad, who was the chief organiser of the gathering from December 17-19 at which incendiary speeches were made against Muslims, was arrested in Haridwar late on Saturday evening.

Yati Narsinghanand, who is also a mahamandaleshwar of the Juna Akhara, had been on a fast to protest the arrest, two days previously, of Waseem Rizvi alias Jitendra Narayan Tyagi in connection with the Haridwar hate speech case.

“An FIR was registered recently against Yati Narsinghanand on the complaint of one Ruchika that he made objectionable remarks against women of a particular community. The complainant alleged that in some social media posts Narsinghanand is seen making these derogatory remarks on January 4 while in conversation with the media. The arrest on Saturday was primarily in connection with that FIR. However, when we presented him in court on Sunday, we showed his arrest in both the objectionable remarks case as well as the Haridwar dharma sansad case,” Haridwar City Circle Officer (CO) Shekhar Suyal told The Indian Express.

Suyal said on Saturday another FIR had been registered against Narsinghanand and some unidentified others on a complaint by a journalist. “The journalist asked Narsinghanand some tough questions, which led to an altercation, and the journalist was allegedly manhandled,” he said.

SHO of Haridwar Kotwali police station Rakendra Kathait said the FIR on the complaint of Ruchika was registered under sections 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the IPC.

Two FIRs had been registered earlier in connection with the December 17-19 dharma sansad in Haridwar.

The first FIR was registered at the Haridwar Kotwali police station on December 23 on the complaint of one Gulbahar Khan under IPC sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups and acts prejudicial to harmony) and 295A.

Five people were named in this FIR: Narsinghanand, Tyagi, and religious leaders Dharamdas Maharaj, Maa Annapurna Bharti, and Sagar Sindhuraj Maharaj.

The latter three are yet to be arrested. One of them, Maa Annapurna Bharti, organised a “pratikar sabha” (protest meeting) in Haridwar on Sunday, accusing Uttarakhand government of coming under pressure from “jihadis”.

The second FIR was registered on January 2 on a complaint by social worker Nadeem Ali. The FIR, filed under sections 153A and 298 (uttering words, etc., with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person), referred to alleged hate speeches at the Haridwar event and in days that followed. It named Tyagi and unidentified others.

An SIT had been formed to investigate the case, but the first arrests — of Tyagi and Narsinghanand — have come only after Supreme Court notices to Centre, Delhi Police, and Uttarakhand government on January 10. The notice was issued after a PIL was filed alleging police inaction, and seeking an investigation into alleged hate speeches delivered at the Haridwar event and, separately, at an event organised in Delhi by the Hindu Yuva Vahini.