Agra’s Mantola police have filed an FIR against the former BSP minister Bashir Chaudhary, for one of his controversial videos where he is heard making some communally sensitive remarks. The minister is alleged to have incited religious sentiments by releasing videos on social media. He had won the assembly elections from Agra Cantt in 2002 on a BSP ticket.
The Mantola police which has called it a deliberate attempt to spread hatred between the two communities have booked the minister under IPC Sections 153A, 295A and 67 IT Act.
In what transpired, on August 29, Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha held demonstration across Mantola district against the illegal slaughterhouses operating in the area after the Hindu outfit’s volunteers caught two meat loaded trucks in the Hathi ghat area around 4:30 am on Saturday. The Hindu organisation protested, demanding that authorities take prompt action against the illegal cow slaughtering and smuggling carried out in the district unabated.
Following the demonstration, the former BSP leader released a video, in which he allegedly warned Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha workers against entering Mantola district in future. He allegedly made some communally sensitive remarks in his video. The video was widely shared and was condemned on social media sites as users felt that the minister attempted to incite and spread hatred between the people of two communities. After the video went viral, the Mantola Police took cognisance and booked the minister.
Former BSP minister Bashir Chaudhary booked for inciting Muslims against the police
The former BSP minister is not new to controversies. Last month too, a case had been registered against Bashir Chaudhary and others in the Mantola PS. The minister was booked for inciting Muslim goat vendors against the police. In a run-up to Bakri Eid, owing to the pandemic, the Mantola police had not given permission to put up the cattle market in the area. The minister had, however, intervened and ordered the goat sellers to continue doing their business. Disregarding police instructions, Bashir told the goat sellers: “No one needs to run away, no one is selling charas ganja here. No one can even touch you as long as I am here, “. A video of this had gove viral after which the minister was booked.
Was Jailed for domestic violence
He is the same minister who’s wife in 2018 had accused him of domestic violence. In 2013, the former BSP minister was jailed after his pregnant wife had lodged a complaint against him, accusing him of harassment over dowry, unnatural sex and intimidation. Nagma, who is the minister’s third wife, had also accused him of being involved in an illicit relationship with another woman. She alleged that when she objected to his behaviour she was beaten up badly.
In 2002, Bashir Chaudhary was elected MLA on a BSP ticket from the Agra Cantonment assembly seat, and later rose to become a minister in the state cabinet. He got married to Chaudhary Ghazala Lari, an MLA from Deoria and switched loyalties to the Samajwadi Party which gave him a ticket in the following assembly elections, but he lost to a BSP candidate.
Chaudhary then switched over to the Congress. But when he was denied a ticket from Agra South, he contested the 2012 assembly election as a candidate for the Rashtriya Samanta Dal but lost.
