Uttarakhand police make 1st arrest in Dharam Sansad case

HARIDWAR: Waseem Rizvi alias Jitendra Narayan Tyagi was arrested by Uttarakhand police in Haridwar on Thursday for allegedly making provocative statements against Muslims at a 'Dharam Sansad' held in Haridwar from December 17 to 19.
This is the first arrest in the Dharam Sansad hate speech case, police said. He was one of many speakers at the meeting who had made derogatory remarks against Islam and its practitioners.
"Rizvi was detained at Haridwar-Narsan border and produced before the CJM court by police late in the evening. The court has sent him to judicial custody. Two cases were registered against him in the city police station. He had made provocative statements against the symbols of Islam during his controversial book launch at Haridwar Press Club and also at the three-day religious conclave," said Shekhar Suyal, circle officer (city).
Soon after Rizvi's judicial custody order, Yati Narsinghanand Giri, the controversial priest of Dasna temple in Ghaziabad, sat on a hunger strike at the bank of Ganga in Haridwar along with his supporters demanding his immediate bail.
The arrest comes a day after the Supreme Court had sought responses from the Centre and others on a petition seeking direction to ensure investigation and action against those who allegedly made the hate speeches. It posted the matter for hearing after 10 days.
Rizvi, a former chief of Shia Waqf Board who recently converted to Hinduism, was booked along with Narsinghanand and seers Dharamdas and Sadhvi Annapurna, and others, under IPC section 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, etc), among other sections, for their alleged hate speeches at the Dharam Sansad.