A Haridwar court on Sunday sent Hindu militant leader and the head priest of the Dasna temple in Ghaziabad Yati Narsinghanand to 14-day judicial custody.
He has been booked under Sections 295 (A) and 509 of the Indian Penal Code and sent to Roshnabad Jail, Haridwar police station SHO Rakinder Singh Kathait said to PTI news agency.
Section 295 (A) deals with deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs while section 509 deals with word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman.
Though he was the main organiser of the Hindu Parliament in Haridwar -where several Hindu monks including Yati and Hindutva leaders gave open genocidal calls against Muslims- and one of the accused named in the FIR over this event, Narsinghanand was not arrested in this case.
While speaking to NDTV, police officers said that he has been issued a notice in the hate speech case also, adding that he will be remanded in that case too.
“Yati Narsinghanand has been arrested for derogatory comments against women, not the Haridwar hate speech case right now. He has been issued a notice in that case so far. He will be remanded for the hate speech case too, the procedure is on. We will include the hate speech case details also in the remand application,” the police official said.
He was picked up on Saturday night from Sarvanand Ghat of the Ganga, where he was staging a ‘satyagraha’ against the arrest of another accused in the Haridwar genocidal calls case, Jitendra Narayan Tyagi.
Jitendra Narayan Singh Tyagi was the first accused to be arrested in the hate speech case. The arrest came nearly a month after the event.
Critics point out that Uttarakhand Police acted only after the Supreme Court directed the state government to submit an affidavit within 10 days on action taken in the case.
Narsinghanand was seen telling his convoy that police “will be on our side” last month.
He also threatened officers during the first arrest on Friday. “All of you will die,” he said on Friday while arresting Tyagi.
Several times Yati Narsinghanand is caught on camera, giving anti-Muslim genocidal calls. Lately, he also challenged police and the constitution, claiming he is above all.
