Uttarakhand’s BJP government has set up a special investigation team (SIT) two weeks after calls for a genocide of Muslims were sounded at a sadhus’ conclave in Haridwar, apparently under pressure from civil society.
Also, state police have finally added to the FIR the name of Yati Narasinghanand Saraswati, organiser of the December 17-19 Dharma Sansad who is seen in videos urging Hindus to pick up weapons and kill Muslims to establish a Hindu Rashtra.
Dharmraj alias Sindhu Sagar, a sadhu from Uttarakhand who gave a similar call, too has been included in the case, taking the number of named accused to five, deputy inspector-general (Garhwal Range) Karan Singh Nagnyal told reporters in Haridwar on Sunday.
No arrests have been made. Nagnyal said any “further action” would be taken after the probe.
The deputy inspector-general said the SIT, to be headed by an assistant superintendent of police, would submit its report “soon” but mentioned no deadline.
Nagnyal said the SIT probe had been ordered after “some people, including some former police officers, wrote to the government” saying they were not satisfied with the progress in the case. He did not give details.
The FIR invokes charges of promoting enmity between groups on the ground of religion, and of defiling a place of worship with the intent of insulting the religion.
It was registered on December 24 on a complaint from Haridwar resident Gulbahar Qureshi against Jitendra Narayan Tyagi — formerly Waseem Rizvi — and unnamed others. Rizvi is a former head of the state Shia Waqf Board and recently converted to Hinduism.
On December 27, the names of Dharamdas — a sadhu from Bihar — and Sadhvi Annapurna Bharati aka Puja Shakun Pandey of Meerut were added to the FIR.
A video shows Dharamdas telling the conclave he had once wished he could become “Nathuram Godse and pump six bullets” into then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Narasinghanand, head of the Dasna Devi Temple in Ghaziabad, had confirmed to this newspaper the authenticity of the videos on his statement and that by Dharmadas.
Days after the conclave, fresh videos purportedly showed Narasinghanand abusing Mahatma Gandhi and calling Godse a “god” at another venue.
Narasinghanand has announced a similar Dharma Sansad in Aligarh, which has a substantial Muslim population, on January 22 and 23.
“Annapurna Bharati has been assigned the job to convene the Aligarh Dharma Sansad,” Narasinghanand told reporters in Ghaziabad on Saturday.
Bharati lives with her family in Meerut and is known to make inflammatory statements. She had claimed soon after Yogi Adityanath became Uttar Pradesh chief minister that she had formed a “Hindu court” in Meerut to “hear cases relating to the Hindu religion”.
