Bhopal: The Gwalior police registered a case against Nathuram Godse’s followers on Saturday. The action was taken on the instructions of Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath.
Hindu Mahasabha performed puja and aarti of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassins Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte’s photographs in Gwalior to mark the 70th anniversary of the duo’s hanging on Friday. The Gwalior police registered a case under section 153A of the IPC against the Hindu outfit leaders, on Saturday.
Congress spokesperson Narendra Saluja said CM Nath came to know of the incident in which Godse was praised and instructed officials to take action in the matter and file case against the accused.
A case under section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) was registered against Hindu Mahasabha leader N Batham and others at Gwalior Kotwali police station on Saturday.
But the case wasn’t registered for observing Godse-Apte’s hanging anniversary as Balidan Diwas inside the Hindu Mahasabha’s office in Daulatganj. It was instead registered for distributing pamphlets on Thursday that contained objectionable material which could endanger communal harmony.
ASP (Gwalior) Satendra Singh Tomar said, “The case has been registered u/s 153A of IPC against Hindu Mahasabha leader N Batham and others for distributing pamphlets containing religiously objectionable contents.”
Importantly, Hindu Mahasabha leaders in Gwalior had maintained that the Balidan Diwas, which comprised garlanding of Godse-Apte’s pictures, their pujan and aarti, besides singing bhajans was observed in their office in a building in Gwalior’s Daulatganj area and not at any public place. So, it didn’t amount to any crime.
The event was held at Mahasabha’s office, where a banner glorifying the duo’s act was also put up.
“It’s not the first time that we’ve observed Balidan Diwas to mark the anniversary of execution of Godse and Apte, as in the past too we’ve organised the same event,” Hindu Mahasabha national vice-president Jaiveer Bhardwaj had said on Friday.
He added, “We’ve also demanded that Godse’s statue seized by local administration-police from our office in 2017 under pressure of then opposition Congress be returned to us. It has also been demanded that those who vandalised Swami Vivekanand’s statue at the JNU campus be booked for sedition.”
