Siddharth Shrivastav, Lucknow
IMRAN Masood, the Congress candidate from Saharanpur in constituency in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested by Deoband police on Saturday for his hate speech against BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. Following the arrest of Masood, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who was scheduled to address an election rally in Saharanpur has cancelled the event.
Suresh Pal Singh, senior inspector of Deoband police station told ABI that “we have arrested Masood under Sections 125 (promoting enmity between classes in connection with election) of the Representation Of The People Act, and under Sections 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups), 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.”
Sources close to Masood, however, said that this clip was six months old and had been deliberately leaked now to polarise the electorate ahead of the Lok Sabha election. Masood has said that he did not use “the type of language”, adding Modi was the “biggest khalnayak (villain)” in the country. Masood’s video surfaced on Thursday, showing him threatening Modi. The comment – “Hum Modi ki kutti kaat denge (We will chop Modi into pieces)” – made by Masood evoked sharp reactions from within political circles.
Masood, who is the nephew of jailed congress leader Rashid Masood, was produced before the Deoband court under heavy security. His supporters created chaos outside the court. Former Congress Rajya Sabha MP Rashid Masood was also booked under under provisions of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Masood was booked in Saharanpur, soon after clips of his hate speech were telecast on TV channels.
The state BJP president Laxmikant Bajpayi had submitted CD of hate speech to the poll panel. The panel has ordered to book him under the Representation of People’s Act.