An FIR has been lodged against eight persons for tearing pages of Ramcharitmanas, an epic poem in Awadhi language penned by Goswami Tulsidas, and then burning it in Vrindavan Yojna area of Lucknow late on Sunday, police said.
The FIR has been lodged at the PGI police station of Lucknow. Station House Officer (SHO) Rajesh Rana said that they received a complaint from a BJP member, Satnam Singh Lavi, on the basis of which the FIR was lodged.
“Unsavoury comments against Ramcharitmanas and burning of its pages in public may create a rift in society and lead to communal tension. The accused spoke against the holy book on social media and thus hurt the sentiments of Hindus,” he added.
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The SHO said that the accused named by Satnam Singh in his FIR are Yashpal Singh Lodhi, Devendra Yadav, Mahendra Pratap Yadav, Naresh Singh, SS Yadav, Sujit, Santosh Verma, and Salim.
They all have been booked under sections 153-A (promoting enmity), 295 A (outrage religious feelings), 505 (to incite outrage), and 298 (hurt religious feelings) of the Indian Penal Code and section 66 of the IT Act.
The police said that the accused named in the FIR had come out in support of Samajwadi Party MLC Swami Prasad Maurya under the banner of Akhil Bhartiya OBC Mahasabha on Sunday.
Maurya had recently caused a row when he raised objections to certain verses from the book and termed them ‘against women, backward and Dalits’.
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