Ashok Sopan Dhole, a professor of Pune’s Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce, was arrested on Thursday on charges of hurting religious sentiments hours after the institute suspended him for making alleged ‘objectionable remarks about Hindu deities’ during a class.
He was arrested on a complaint by Ravindra Padwal, a Hindutva cadre. Various Hindutva bodies staged a protest outside the college, chanted threatening slogans and filed a police complaint.
Dhole was speaking about polytheism in Hinduism during a Class 12 lecture on July 25. A video of him making the comments was shared widely on social media.
The FIR alleges that Dhole has “insulted the Hindu religion” and intentionally hurt religious sentiments.
The police have invoked Indian Penal Code Section 295A which pertains to deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.
Senior Inspector Vipin Hasabnis said to Hindustan Times that Dhole was arrested after being summoned for questioning.
“I was teaching Bhakti Rasa… I wanted to convey that we can worship any religion because they are all one and equal. But some students were displeased with me due to earlier incidents and amplified some of my comments differently… my intention was not to hurt religious sentiments. I want to apologise to whoever was hurt by my words,” Indian Express quotes Dhole as saying.
He went on to say: “I had sent some students out of the class a couple of times because of the nuisance they created. I had informed their parents… Maybe they were still angry about that. But they are still students and I do not want to escalate the matter further. All Gods are one. All religions are one. There should be no discrimination between people of different religions.”
