Indore: 50 unknowns booked for protest at Regal Square against the arrest of Kalicharan Maharaj

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): A case was registered on Monday against 50 unidentified people for protesting against the arrest of Hindu religious leader Kalicharan Maharaj, who was held last week for using an expletive against Mahatma Gandhi during a speech at an event on December 26 in neighbouring Chhattisgarh. A video of the protest, which was held on Sunday, also showed some people shouting slogans in praise of Nathuram Godse, Gandhi’s assassin.

“About 50 unidentified Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha and Bajrang Sena activists staged a protest on Sunday and raised slogans at Regal Square without the administration’s permission. They then marched to the police commissionerate to submit a memorandum on Kalicharan Maharaj’s arrest,” said Savita Choudhary, in-charge of Choti Gwaltoli police station. She said, according to a prohibitory order of the district collector, rallies, processions and dharnas cannot be held in public places without prior permission from the administration. “An FIR has been registered against the protesters for violation this order under Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the IPC," Choudhary said.

Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Aminul Khan Suri shared a video of the protests, in which pro-Godse slogans can be heard, and said it took place near the commissionerate and the police remained mute spectators. The police should book them under sedition rather than the lighter provisions that have been invoked currently, he said.