DEHRADUN: The Haridwar police arrested Jitendra Narayan Tyagi aka Wasim Rizvi in connection with the hate speech case on Thursday evening. This is the first arrest in the case and comes a day after the Supreme Court, while hearing a plea against the inflammatory speeches made at a Dharma Sansad in Haridwar last month, issued notice to the Uttarakhand government seeking reply within 10-days.
Tyagi was arrested from Narsan border area and produced in court which sent him to judicial custody, said Haridwar SSP Yogendra Rawat. A seven-member team of the district police, after getting a tip-off, nabbed him while he was trying to cross to UP, said police.
Tyagi, who was earlier UP Shia Waqf Board chief before converting to Hinduism, was the first to be named in the FIR registered in the matter. After Tyagi’s arrest, controversial seer and Dharma Sansad organiser Yati Narsinghanand Giri sat on a hunger strike at Srwananda Ghat in Haridwar. “Tyagi ji was arrested with the motive of harassment.
This is a message that no Muslim should ever convert to Hinduism. Whatever was said by him was also aid by all other seers including me. But he is being singled out,” Narsinghanand said, adding that he would not eat or drink anything until Tyagi was released. Earlier, there were rumours that Narsinghanand was also arrested but the police headquarters issued a statement which did not mention any other person except Tyagi.