"Objectionable items" thrown at mosques: 7 arrested in Ayodhya

Lucknow: Ayodhya Police has arrested seven people on Thursday regarding an incident in which objectionable posters, torn pages of religious texts etc., were thrown inside mosques here. The police said that the incident was a deliberate attempt to disturb the peace, a protest against Jahangirpuri violence in Delhi, The Indian Express reported.

In its statement, police said three mosques- Taatshah Jama Masjid, Masjid Ghosiyana, Kashmiri Mohalla Masjid- and the shrine Gulab Shah Baba were thrown at with objectionable items. The locations come under Kotwali police station, and the contentious incident happened on Wednesday night.

The arrested seven were identified as Mahesh Kumar Mishra, Pratyush Srivastava, Nitin Kumar, Deepak Kumar Gaur alias Gunjan, Brijesh Pandey, Shatrughan Prajapati and Vimal Pandey, while four are absconding, police said. Mishra is the mastermind, and there were four similar cases registered against him before.

Police said that the seven claimed that they were members of the Hindu Yodha Sangathan but not a registered organization. The accused have no affiliation to any political parties, police said. The accused have been charged with IPC Sections Sections 295 (injuring or defiling places of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) and 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs).