Man lynched over religious structure in UP, 7 arrested

VARANASI: Sonbhadra police on Saturday arrested seven people on charges of killing a 60-year-old man, Mohd Anwar, in Parsoi village under Obra police jurisdiction on the night of March 20.
The main accused in the lynching case, Ravindra Kharwar, has been arrested. Heavy police force and PAC has been deployed in the village as a precautionary measure, police said on Saturday.
On the night of March 20, hooligans started demolishing a ‘tazia chowk’ (tazia platform) near the primary school of Parsoi village.When Anwar tried to stop them, they attacked him with sticks and axe and fled the scene, police said. They said Anwar’s son Mohd Hasnain rushed him to hospital where doctors declared him ‘brought dead’.
Hasnain later reported the matter to the police upon which SP Sonbhadra Salman Taj Patil with heavy police force reached the village on March 21 morning. In his police complaint, Hasnain alleged Kharwar had been running a ‘shakha’ in the field where the ‘tazia chowk’ (tazia platform) was situated. Kharwar would also provoke children and local youths to remove the platform.
Acting on Hasnain’s complaint, Obra police lodged an FIR against 19 people, including Kharwar, under IPC sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) and 302 (murder) on March 21.
“While seven accused have been arrested, several police teams have been set up to arrest the remaining accused. Police and PAC are deployed in view of the prevailing tension,” said Patil.
“The ‘tazia chowk’ had been constructed on government land near the village primary school. A primary teacher wanted to remove the platform to develop a playing field, leading to dispute between people of two communities in the village,” the SP said.