BENGALURU: An Islamic religious teacher, who delivered hate speech provoking the mob to attack a police station in Mysuru city over an objectionable social media post on the Aam Aadmi Party's debacle in the Delhi Assembly elections, was arrested on Thursday.
The maulvi has been identified as Mufti Mustaq Maqbooli.
Maqbooli was arrested by the special wing City Central Crime Branch (CCB), 11 days after the incident.
The police have got Maqbooli's video clip, which has gone viral and is seen making highly provoking statements.
The accused Satish aka Panduranga, a resident of Kalyannagar in Mysuru, had put up a post ridiculing Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi, former Chief Ministers Akhilesh Yadav and Arvind Kejriwal. The accused further made provocative communal statements against a particular religious group. The post went viral on social media.
A group belonging to the minority community gathered in front of the Udayagiri Police Station demanding action against the accused person.
Although the police tried to pacify the crowd and even roped in religious leaders who requested them to calm down, the situation turned violent and the crowd started pelting stones on the police station. The mob also attacked the official vehicle of the DCP.
They raised slogans and when the situation went out of control, the police resorted to lathi-charge.
Additional police forces were summoned and the senior police officers along with local political leaders appealed to the crowd and assured them that action would be taken against the accused person. They somehow managed to convince the mob to withdraw the protest.
Union Minister for Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs Pralhad Joshi had strongly condemned the attack on police officers in Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's hometown Mysuru, calling it a shocking and unfortunate incident.
"The law and order situation in Karnataka is deteriorating day by day, and the recent incident in Mysuru is clear proof of this. Mysuru is known as the cultural capital of Karnataka and is also the Chief Minister's hometown. If miscreants are creating chaos even in such a place, it clearly indicates how much the law and order situation has collapsed in the state, " he had said.
He had condemned the violent attack on the Udayagiri police station in Mysuru, where miscreants not only attacked the station but also assaulted police officers. "It is ironic that such riots are happening in the Chief Minister's town, " he remarked.