The national president of Hindutva outfit Hindu Raksha Dal and his son were arrested in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad for allegedly distributing swords in a residential colony and disturbing communal harmony, PTI reported on Wednesday.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Trans Hindon) Nimish Patil was quoted as saying that Bhupendra Chowdhry, alias Pinki (50), and his son Harsh Chowdhry were arrested on Tuesday from the city’s Shalimar Garden Colony.
The two were produced before a court the same day and remanded to 14-day judicial custody.
Ten members of the outfit had been arrested in the same case on December 27.
The arrests were made after videos started circulating on social media, in the last week of December, showing members of the Hindutva group displaying and handing out swords.
Chowdhry was heard saying in one of the videos that Hindus needed to keep swords to defend themselves considering “the way our Hindu brothers have been killed in Bangladesh”.
Chaudhary was referring to the killing of Dipu Chandra Das, a factory worker, who was beaten to death by a mob in Bangladesh’s Mymensingh district on December 18 after being accused of blasphemy.
According to the Uttar Pradesh Police’s FIR, members of the Hindu Raksha Dal also shouted communal slogans while holding a rally through the area with weapons.
The case was filed under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections pertaining to rioting, rioting with deadly weapons and wrongful confinement, along with provisions of the Criminal Law Amendment Act.
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