BHOPAL: The district and sessions court here on Saturday rejected anticipatory bail of Congress MLA Arif Masood for hurting religious sentiments by making inflammatory speech at a gathering against France at Iqbal Maidan.
The Talaiya police had registered case against MLA Arif Masood for inflammatory speech and promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion under Section 153(A) of IPC.
After huge gathering at Iqbal Maidan against France, administration had registered cases. The district administration had demolished extended part of his Indira Priyadarshani College when Masood was in Bihar for poll campaigning on November 5.
Masood had organised a gathering to protest against French President Emmanuel Macron over a cartoon row at Iqbal Maidan. The Congress MLA had made provocative speech and a group had filed a complaint against him in this connection.
Earlier, FIR was registered against Congress MLA and 2,000 others for staging the protest in violation of Covid-19 restrictions. The police had arrested him but he got bail and was released. Then, a fresh complaint was lodged against him for making inflammatory speech to incite people.
