Hindutva supremacist Yati Narsinghanand Giri, who was arrested on Saturday for making derogatory remarks against women, has now also been booked in the Haridwar hate speech case, Uttarakhand Director General of Police Ashok Kumar told The Hindu.
After the seer was sent to 14 days of judicial custody on Sunday, Haridwar Station House Officer Rakinder Singh Kathait had said that besides Section 509 (intending to insult the modesty of any woman) of the Indian Penal Code, the seer has also been charged under Section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings).
Later on Sunday, the Uttarakhand Director General of Police Ashok Kumar told The Hindu that in a first information report filed on January 12, Yati Narsinghanand had been booked for making derogatory remarks against women.
The police had served him a notice on January 14 under Section 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code, asking him to join the investigation whenever summoned, Kumar said.
“When he did not honour the notice, he was arrested in both the cases – for hate speech and making derogatory remarks against women,” the police officer said. “We sought his judicial remand from [the] court and he has been sent to 14 days judicial custody.”
Another unidentified officer told The Hindu that police did not seek the seer’s custody as it was not required for the investigation at this stage.
Yati Narsinghanand and several other Hindutva supremacists had called for violence against Muslims at a religious conclave held in Haridwar between December 17 and December 19. He had called upon Hindus to pick up weapons, asserting that the “economic boycott” of Muslims will not work.
Former chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board Jitendra Tyagi was the first person to be arrested in the case on January 13. Tyagi has recently converted to Hinduism from Islam.
Two first information reports have been filed in the case so far. The first FIR was filed on December 23 and had just included Tyagi’s name. On January 1, the names of Yati Narsinghanand and Sagar Sindhu were added to the FIR.
On January 2, the second FIR was filed against 10 persons, including Yati Narsinghanand and Sindhu.
Dharamdas, Parmananda, Annapurna, Anand Swaroop, Ashwini Upadhyay, Suresh Chahwan and Prabodhanand Giri and Tyagi were also named in the report.
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