Lucknow: Delivering a hate speech outside a mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Sitapur district, a Hindu priest allegedly threatened to kidnap and rape Muslim women.
Six days after the incident, police have registered a case under relevant sections and are investigating the matter. Further steps are being taken on the basis of witnesses’ statements.
Following the visuals of the speech sparked outrage and questions were raised on why no action had been taken so far, Sitapur police issued a statement on Twitter regarding the registration of the case.
The video was shared on twitter by Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of fact-check website AltNews, saying that the video was shot on April 2 but no action had been taken by the police even after five days.
A man clad in saffron robes is seen in the video addressing a gathering from inside a jeep. A man in a police uniform can also be spotted in the background. The priest is being cheered by the crowd with “Jai Shri Ram” slogans. He purportedly says that if a Muslim harasses any girl in the area, he would kidnap Muslim women and publicly rape them. The threat is met with loud cheers by the crowd.
The man is reportedly the local mahant in a small town Khairabad about 100 km from Lucknow.
Another video is doing the rounds on social media which shows four cops in the frame, three of them in the same vehicle as the priest as he delivers the hate speech.
Meanwhile, the National Commission for Women has condemned the remarks and sought the priest’s arrest. It also issued a statement lamenting, “The Police should not be a mute spectator in such incidents and appropriate measures must be taken by them to curb people from using such outrageous language for women.”
