Yati Narsinghanand Giri, accused in Haridwar hate speech case, sent to 14-day judicial custody

Seer Yati Narsinghanand Giri, one of the accused persons in the Haridwar hate speech case, was sent to judicial custody for 14 days on Sunday, a day after he was arrested in a separate case, reported PTI.

He has been booked under Sections 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings) and 509 (intending to insult the modesty of any woman) of the Indian Penal Code, Haridwar Station House Officer Rakinder Singh Kathait said.

On Saturday, Yati Narsinghanand had been arrested “in connection with a case pertaining to derogatory remarks against women”, the circle officer of Haridwar Police had said. The officer had said that two to three separate cases have been registered against the seer.

On Sunday, an unidentified police officer had told NDTV that Yati Narsinghanand has been issued a notice in the hate speech case as well.

“He will be remanded for the hate speech case too, the procedure is on,” the officer had reportedly said. “We will include the hate speech case details also in the remand application.”

Haridwar hate speech case

Yati Narsinghanand was allegedly one of the organisers of a “dharam sansad”, or a religious parliament, held in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar city between December 17 and December 19, during which Hindutva group members and seers had called for violence against Muslims. The speakers at the event had asked Hindus to buy weapons to commit genocide against Muslims.

In the Haridwar hate speech case, former chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board Jitendra Tyagi was arrested on January 13. Tyagi had recently converted to Hinduism and changed his name from Wasim Rizvi. He is the first person to be arrested in the case.

Two first information reports have been filed in the case so far.

The first FIR was filed on December 23 and had just named Tyagi. On January 1, the names of Yati Narsinghanand and Sagar Sindhu were added in the FIR.

On January 2, the second FIR was filed against 10 persons, including Yati Narsinghanand and Sindhu. The other accused persons named in the FIR are event organisers Dharamdas, Parmananda, Annapurna, Anand Swaroop, Ashwini Upadhyay, Suresh Chahwan and Prabodhanand Giri and Tyagi.

Giri, also known as Yati Nargsinghanand Saraswati, has made several extremist comments in the past as well. At the Haridwar event, he had called upon Hindus to pick up weapons, asserting that “economic boycott” of Muslims will not work.