Row sparked as Lord Swaminarayan idol is dressed up in RSS uniform

Coimbatore, June 1: A communal conspiracy has been aborted by the police by arrested a miscreant who had placed meat in front of Venugopala Krishnaswamy Temple and Sri Ragavendra Temple in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

The miscreant has been identified as S Hari Ramprakash, 48, of Kavundampalayam in Coimbatore. He is a civil engineering graduate. It is suspected that He is a Sangh Parivar activist and the intention behind his act was to put the blame on Muslims.

Even though officials claimed that Hari appeared to be mentally disturbed, there were no medical records that stated he was mentally disturbed.

Two separate cases were registered against Hari. He was booked under sections 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups) 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) and 298 (uttering words etc, with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code.

City police commissioner Sumit Sharan said, “We collected CCTV footage and found a man, who had parked his motorcycle near the two temples and returned from the temples. Based on the registration number, we traced and arrested Hari.”

Commissioner added that the city has CCTV cameras in many places and it helped police officials crack the case faster. The police said he purchased one kg of pork meat from a shop at Kavundamapalaym last Friday morning and placed it in front of the temples on the same day.

Bengaluru, Jun 20: A petition has been filed in Karnataka High Court to transfer Amulya Leona case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). She raised pro-Pakistan slogans at an anti-CAA rally on February 20 at Freedom Park.

The petition, filed by advocate Vishal Raghu, blamed the probe team for not filing chargesheet on time and suggested the state government to approach the higher court against bail granted to Amulya Leona.

On June 11, she was granted conditional bail by the Bengaluru civil court.

She was charged with sedition for her actions in the presence of All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen chief Asaduddin Owaisi.

The court granted bail after hearing the bail application. Amulya's advocate on behalf of the petitioner said, "the petitioner is just a 19-year-old lady and she is studying in a private college in the Bengaluru. She shouted 'Pakistan Zindabad' but she never mentioned Pakistan as her country."

Bengaluru, Feb 4: Congress leader and former minister U T Khader today demanded an “objective” probe by an IAS officer into the sedition case the police have booked against a school in Bidar for a play students staged on the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

On January 26, the Shaheen Primary and High School was charged by the Bidar New Town police with sedition on January 26. This was based on a complaint by an Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishat (ABVP) worker who claimed that the play staged by the students on January 21 “insulted” Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

On January 30, the police arrested Nazbunnisa, the mother of an 11-year-old student and Fareeda Begum, a head-teacher in the school.

“This shows how today in India and in Karnataka, the BJP is looking to suppress the voices of people. Sedition cases have no value anymore,” UT Khader told a news conference.

“When a complaint on sedition is filed, action must be taken after obtaining legal opinion. But today, a written complaint by any BJP worker is enough to brand someone as anti-national. Even schoolchildren aren’t spared,” Khader said.

“An IAS officer should be appointed to objectively probe this. If something is found, then the police can continue the investigation,” Khader said. “But the government should pressurize the police. We’ve seen what happened in Mangaluru,” he said, referring to the police shootout that killed two people during an anti-CAA protest. “I know it’s difficult for officials to resist political pressure, but a line must be drawn. All officials must come together and send the government a message, that they will not be bogged down to pressure that’s against societal interests,” he added.

Khader said he lacked faith in the BJP government. “That’s because the BJP tends to give election tickets to those who plant bombs,” Khader said, citing the example of terror-accused Bhopal MP Pragya Thakur. “Even the Aditya Rao case (Mangaluru airport bomb planter)...we don’t know what’s happening. They just want to hush it up,” Khader charged.