On Monday, the Ghaziabad police filed a case against Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of Alt-News, under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). The charges include promoting hostility between religious groups.
This action was taken following a complaint by Udita Tyagi, who serves as the general secretary for the Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati Foundation and is a leader in the BJP’s women’s wing in western Uttar Pradesh.
The complaint came after a controversial video of Yati Narsinghanand, the head priest of Dasna temple, surfaced. In the video, Narsinghanand allegedly made offensive comments about Prophet Muhammad, leading to widespread attention on social media.
Following this, on October 3, the police themselves initiated a case against Narsinghanand for his remarks made on September 29 at Hindi Bhawan in Ghaziabad.
Udita Tyagi’s complaint against Zubair was linked to a protest that took place outside Dasna Devi temple on the night of October 4. The case against Zubair was officially registered at Kavi Nagar police station.
“They had intention to attack the temple and about 200-250 persons including myself were inside the temple. Zubair made several tweets on social media and incited fundamentalists. He did not stop there and continued to post small clips which provoked people. He also cut video clip of Maharaj Yati Narsinghanand ji and selectively used portions of the clip to incite people,” Tyagi alleged.
After the FIR, Mohammed Zubair,@zoo_bear, posted a copy of the FIR on X and stated, “As expected. FIR registered against me.”
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Abhishek Srivastava, assistant commissioner of police, Kavi Nagar circle, said, “The FIR has been filed against Zubair on complaint given by Udita Tyagi. We are investigating the case.”
After Tyagi claimed there was an attack on the temple, the Ghaziabad police themselves filed a case at the Wave City police station on October 5.
Following this, on Monday, the police said they arrested 10 people related to the incident that happened on October 4.
But, there hasn’t been any legal action against Narsinghanand. His supporters say the police took him away on the night of October 4, but the police say this isn’t true.
“Narsinghanand is not with us. As regards the FIR against him, we are still investigating the matter and action will follow,” said DCP Kumar.
