E-Paper
1,000 booked for blocking road, raising communal slogans in Bahraich
In Bahraich, 1,000 unidentified Muslims were booked for blocking a road after a school chat sparked communal tensions. Police are monitoring the area.
Around 1,000 unidentified persons from the Muslim community were booked for blocking a road and raising communal slogans outside a house in Bahraich’s Nanpara area on October 7, police said on Friday.
The mob was triggered by a chat between two schoolchildren, who allegedly wrote offensive messages about each other’s religions and a screenshot of which surfaced on social media, officials said. The mob gathered outside the house of one of the two kids on Monday.
Nanpara police station in-charge Pradeep Singh said an FIR against the incident was lodged as a precautionary measure so that no law-and-order issue emerged during the Navratri and Dussehra festivities. Hundreds of people had blocked a road, which troubled residents and shopkeepers, he added.
The in-charge stated that although no arrests were made in connection with the incident, police force had been deployed in the area for better vigil.
Singh stated that a Class 9 student was taken into police custody on Tuesday after the screenshots of his chat with a fellow student surfaced online and triggered tension in the area. He said the students made objectionable remarks against each other’s religions.
Nanpara circle officer (CO) Pradyumna Singh said the FIR against the unidentified persons from the Muslim community was lodged on the basis of a complaint lodged by the in-charge of the Raja Bazaar police outpost, and charges under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections 189(2) (unlawful assembly), 126(2) (blocking roads), 132 (obstructing government work), 285 (causing public danger), 352 (insult and provocation), 353(3) (spreading misleading rumours related to religion), and Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act were invoked.
