NEW DELHI, April 28: The Uttar Pradesh police on Thursday arrested seven persons for allegedly throwing objectionable posters and torn pages of religious texts outside three mosques and a shrine in Ayodhya on Wednesday.
Police said the seven arrested persons have been identified as Mahesh Kumar Mishra, Pratyush Srivastava, Nitin Kumar, Deepak Kumar Gaur alias Gunjan, Brijesh Pandey, Shatrughan Prajapati and Vimal Pandey – all residents of Ayodhya district.
“While seven persons have been arrested, four others are absconding. We will arrest them soon. During questioning of those arrested, it came to light that they wanted to ruin the amicable atmosphere and peaceful tradition of this city,” Senior Superintendent of Police (Ayodhya) Shailesh Kumar Pandey said at a press conference. “The law and order situation is completely under control and no untoward incident has happened since the incident,” he added.
According to the police, objectionable items were thrown at three mosques – Taatshah Jama masjid, Masjid Ghosiyana, Kashmiri Mohalla mosque – and at the shrine of Gulab Shah Baba under the Kotwali police station on Wednesday.
“A total of eight persons on four motorcycles, led by Mahesh Mishra, threw objectionable posters and objects at the mosques and the shrine… The objects which they had thrown were recovered, and the vehicles used by them have been impounded… After collecting the evidence, police teams were able to figure out the whole chain of events,” the SSP said.
In a statement, Ayodhya police said Mahesh Kumar Mishra was the “mastermind” of the incident, and the planning was done at his house “to take revenge for the communal violence in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri.”
The accused have been booked under IPC section 295 (injuring or defiling places of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class), and 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs).
(Manas Dasgupta)