Narsinghanand, Arrested for Haridwar Hate Speech, Faces Fresh Charges of Assault

The seer reportedly had threatened bodily harm on a journalist and a photographer.

Mahant Narsinghanand Saraswati of Dasna Devi Mandir.

(Photo: The Quint)

Hindu religious leader Yati Narsinghanand who was arrested on Saturday, 14 January, in Haridwar for his hate speech has been slapped with a slew of new charges for allegedly threatening a journalist and a photographer.

Haridwar city police station SHO Rakinder Singh Kathait on Monday, 17 January, confirmed the new charges against Yati who has been booked in several cases in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

As per the SHO, the journalist and photographer accompanying him posed a question to the priest on Saturday, following which the seer reportedly got offended and threatened to have them beat up.

On the basis of a complaint by the journalist, fresh charges were imposed on the seer and he was consequently booked under Sections 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) and 352 (punishment for assault or criminal force otherwise than on grave provocation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), PTI reported.

Prior to the complaint, the priest had approached the police, saying the journalist had “hurt his sentiments by calling him a ‘so-called seer’ during the interview," Hindustan Times reported.

The religious leader – who was the organiser of the Haridwar ‘Dharam Sansad’ where calls were given for the genocide of Muslims – was sent to judicial custody for 14 days on Sunday, a day after his arrest.

Narsinghanand, a priest of the Dasna Temple in Ghaziabad, has been at the centre of many other controversies in the past too.

He is among the 10 others who have been named in the FIRs lodged against this Haridwar event where slogans were raised calling for violence against Muslims. The event was also attended by BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay and and BJP Mahila Morcha leader Udita Tyagi.

Three FIRs had also been filed against Yati Narsinghanand last year for his remarks against women.

(With inputs from PTI and Hindustan Times.)