‘Attempt To Provoke Riots’: 7 Arrested For Throwing Torn Pages Of Religious Texts, Pork At Mosques In Ayodhya

As many as seven persons belonging to an outfit called ‘Hindu Yodha Sangathan’ were arrested in Ayodhya of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday for allegedly throwing torn pieces of the Quran, objectionable posters and slices of pork at mosques, in an attempt to defile the place of worship and to incite communal violence.

The police have arrested all the accused, who have been identified as Mahesh Kumar Mishra, Pratyush Srivastava, Nitin Kumar, Deepak Kumar Gaur alias Gunjan, Brijesh Pandey, Shatrughan Prajapati and Vimal Pandey. The leader of the outfit, according to the police statement, is a history-sheeter with four criminal cases against him.

The accused have been booked under IPC Sections 295 (injuring or defiling places of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) and 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs).

The police statement also said eleven people were involved in the conspiracy, and four were on the run. They also said that they found the accused had purchased skull caps, two copies of the Quran, pork and writing materials.

It was an attempt to create communal violence and incite riots in Ayodhya,” they said. On Tuesday midnight, the accused threw pieces of pork, letters threatening a particular community and torn pages of a sacred text at the mosques and a Mazar read the statement.

“During the investigation, it was found that the accused were annoyed over the Jahangirpuri incident in Delhi and wanted to take revenge”, the statement said.

According to the police, they also say that the accused first attempted to plant the objectionable items at a mosque in Beniganj. But due to police presence in the area, they moved to the three mosques and the Mazar.