Lucknow, Feb 06: Lucknow Police on Sunday invoked National Security Act (NSA) against two of the accused arrested for allegedly burning pages of Ramcharitmanas in the Vrindavan area of the state capital on January 29.

 

 

 

The order to invoke NSA against Saleem and Satyendra Kushwaha has been served in jail, said a police officer.

 

 

 

Both Saleem and Satyendra Kushwaha are lodged in Lucknow district jail since their arrest. The NSA was invoked by the district magistrate, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Lucknow Cantonment) Anup Kumar Singh said, adding five persons have been arrested so far in connection with the January 29 incident. On January 29, a group of people allegedly belonging to an outfit called Akhil Bharatiya OBC Mahasabha, burnt pages of Ramcharitmanas in the Vrindavan area. The police registered an FIR against 10 persons, including Samajwadi Party MLC Swami Prasad Maurya on various charges including 95 (defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion), 153-A (promoting enmity), 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 506 (criminal intimidation).

 

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The FIR registered on a complaint by BJP leader Satnam Singh Lavi, named Maurya and nine others – Devendra Pratap Yadav, Yashpal Singh Lodhi, Satyendra Kushwaha, Mahendra Pratap Yadav, Sujit Yadav, Naresh Singh, SS Yadav, Santosh Verma, and Saleem. The protest was held apparently in solidarity with Maurya, who had on January 22 in a statement said the Hindu epic contained passages discriminatory of Dalits, tribals, Backwards, and women.