Hyderabad police have filed a case against well-known motivational speaker Munawar Zama of Mumbai and two other people for inciting hatred and stirring religious sentiments in the wake of the recent vandalism incident at the Muthyalamma temple in Kummariguda, Secunderabad. Abdul Rasheed Basheer Ahmed and Rehman, the manager and proprietor of the Metropolis Hotel in Regimental Bazaar, are the other two people booked in the case.
The authorities informed that under the pretence of holding a month-long session on personality development, they were encouraging hatred towards Hindus among the participants. Salman Salim Thakur was one of the 151 attendees of the workshop that took place at the hotel. They came from various parts of India, according to the police. Salman who stormed into the temple and vandalised the idol of Goddess Durga on 14th October became radicalised after watching videos of Islamic preachers including fugitive Zakir Naik was arrested on 16th October.
Locals caught him in the act and beat him up before turning him over to the police. He is receiving treatment at a hospital in the city at present. Police are currently looking into the backgrounds of Zama and the participants. “We are also scrutinising the conference recordings, material distributed to participants, and several other details,” a senior city police officer overseeing the investigation unveiled. He added that all 49 of the hotel’s rooms were reserved for the attendees.
Motivational speaker Munawar Zama, who is based in Mumbai, provoked people to start riots has addition to fomenting animosity between different communities based on religion, according to the complaint. L Suresh, sub-inspector of Gopalapuram police station revealed, “He also provoked Salman to damage the idol of the goddess at Muthyalamma temple.” Police added that Zama organized the session with assistance from Basheer and Rehman, but he did not have permission to conduct it.
A senior official earlier stated, “Salman came to Hyderabad in early October this year to attend a month-long personality development workshop conducted by popular Mumbai-based motivational speaker Munawar Zama, his associate Md Kafeel Ahmed, and their followers at Hotel Metropolis, in Regimental Bazar. Zama is the owner of English House Academy.” The hotel’s premises were illegally rented without official permission in order to host the event.
Sections 299 (deliberate insult or outrage of religious feelings), 192 (malicious or wanton provocation with the intent to incite a riot), 196 (promoting enmity and hatred between different groups based on various grounds), 223 (disobeying orders from public servants that can lead to obstruction or danger) and 49 (abetment to commit a crime) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) were invoked after police took suo motu action against the three accused.
Zama is the founder of English House Academy and describes himself as a motivational speaker and personality development trainer, the ongoing probe discovered. Cops stated, “The key features of the workshop, as claimed by the organisers, included functional grammar, communication skills, vocabulary enhancement, pronunciation, public speaking, confidence building, and character building.” He has over 3.63 million subscribers on YouTube, more than 742K followers on Instagram and nearly 2.7 million followers on Facebook.
