Days after violence broke out in Kanpur following the Friday Namaz, Kanpur Police has arrested a BJP youth wing leader for his “offensive” comments on Prophet Muhammad. Harshit Srivastava, a youth wing functionary, was arrested by the police over allegedly inflammatory tweets.
Sharing the information, Kanpur Police Commissioner Vijay Meena said, “We will act against anyone who tries to play with religious sentiments.”
Uttar Pradesh | Kanpur Police arrest BJP youth wing leader Harshit Srivastava over his controversial tweet in view of clashes in the district that broke out recently. Case registered. pic.twitter.com/0D3tEq32L9
— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) June 7, 2022
Violence had broken out in Kanpur last Friday after the afternoon Namaz when Islamists were forcibly trying to impose a bandh called against former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma. Several people were injured in stone-pelting and violent clashes in the Beaconganj area of Kanpur. A total of three FIRs have been registered in the case.
Hayat Zafar Hashmi, the mastermind behind the violence, was arrested on June 4, a day after the riots. He is also among the 40 accused named in the FIR in the case. Hashmi, identified as the main conspirator behind the clashes in Kanpur, is the former Secretary of Youth Congress.
Kanpur police revealed that a total of 141 WhatsApp groups were found on Hashmi’s mobile, and most of them had conversations regarding the Kanpur clashes. Several other names have also come up after going through the chats who were also active in those groups.
Based on the examination of the CCTV footage, the Kanpur police on Monday released a poster of 40 suspects involved in the clash that took place on June 3. The suspects in the poster are those who were caught on camera pelting stones and participating in the violence that erupted in Kanpur on Friday. The police have appealed to the public to help in the search for these people.
