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Telangana man held for urinating near Shivaji Maharaj statue: Police
The accused was allegedly paraded naked on the streets and thrashed by a group of men, suspected to be members of a Hindu right-wing outfit
Hyderabad: Tension prevailed in Gajwel town of Telangana’s Siddipet district on Monday night as two groups clashed after a Muslim man was assaulted for allegedly urinating near a statute of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in an inebriated state, police said.
The accused was allegedly paraded naked on the streets and thrashed by a group of men, suspected to be members of a Hindu right-wing outfit, on Monday night.
The accused, a local Muslim man, has been arrested for desecrating the statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and remanded to 14-day judicial custody, Gajwel assistant commissioner of police (ACP) M Ramesh told HT on Tuesday.
“We have booked a case under Section 295-A (hurting the religious sentiments and beliefs of other communities) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against the accused,” he said.
The ACP added that two other people were also arrested in connection with the clashes that erupted between two groups following the incident.
“The two persons have also been remanded to judicial custody,” Ramesh said. “The situation is absolutely under control and peaceful. We have stepped up security in the area to prevent any further untoward incidents.”
The officer, however, did not divulge any details about the accused in both cases.
Gajwel is the home constituency of chief minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi president K Chandrashekar Rao.
Following a call given by Hindu organisations, a shutdown was observed in Gajwel on Tuesday. “It was only partial and there was no disruption to normal life,” the ACP said.
Meanwhile, videos of the incident purportedly showing a group of men parading the accused naked on the streets while raising slogans of “Jai Shri Ram”, “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”, and “Chatrapati Shivaji Ki Jai,” were widely circulated on social media. The videos purportedly showed the protesters force the accused clean the area in front of the statue where he had allegedly urinated.
HT could not independently verify the veracity of the videos.
As the videos went viral, members of the Muslim community from nearby areas gathered at the spot and protested against the attack on the accused. This led to a clash between Hindu and Muslim groups in which stones were pelted, leading to injuries to one person, an officer said. However, the police quickly intervened and brought the situation under control.
Siddipet police commissioner N Swetha, who rushed to the spot along with senior officials, spoke to both the warring groups. “We shall take stringent action against those who were behind the incident and also those who were involved in the clashes,” she said.
