Five members of the Ulema Council have been booked for dishonouring the national flag during a public meeting in Uttar Pradesh's Azamgarh district, police said on Friday.
The members of the Ulema Council made 'insulting comments' about the tricolour in the meeting in the Purarani area of Azamgarh on Tuesday, some 300 km from Lucknow, police said.
The district administration on Thursday ordered a case to be lodged at the Mubarakpur police station after seeing the video footage of the meeting, police inspector Bhupendra Singh told IANS over phone.
Insulting the national flag is an offence that attracts a maximum sentence of three years with fine, police said.
The Ulema Council has announced its candidates for seven Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh: Ambedkar Nagar, Kanpur, Azamgarh, Lalganj, Jaunpur, Machlishahr and Lucknow.