AMRITSAR – Chairman of Punjab Hindu Shiv Sena Sudhir Suri was arrested today, for allegedly hurting public sentiments and posting offensive videos on social media attempting to promote enmity between Hindus and Sikhs.
The police also arrested his accomplice Hardeep Sharma alias Happy for the same. They were held after Suri uploaded a video from Happy’s Facebook account, police said.
“They had hurt religious sentiments. Such act by anyone cannot be tolerated in the interest of Punjab,” said Amrik Singh Powar, deputy commissioner of police (DCP).
The accused have been booked under Sections 294 (obscene acts and song), 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) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and under Section 67 (punishment for publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form) of Information and Technology Act at A-division police station.
Meanwhile, Jai Gopal Lali, north India president of Shiv Sena (Punjab), said that Suri was called by the police in the afternoon where he was eventually arrested. “He didn’t hurt religious sentiments. He has always advocated Hindu-Sikh unity. The distorted facts were presented in front of the police. We were looking forward to organise Hindu Mahapanchayat in Amritsar and this is an attempt to refrain us from doing that,” alleged Lali.
However, sources in the police claimed that both the accused were sent to Pathankot jail for security reasons.