LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh Police on Wednesday arrested Bajrang Muni Das of Maharishi Shri Laxman Das Udasi Ashram, days after he allegedly made a hate speech and issued a "rape threat" in Sitapur.
Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar told PTI that police arrested him in Sitapur.
Bajrang Muni Das, the mahant of Maharshi Shri Lakshman Das Udaseen Ashram in Khairabad town of Sitapur, had allegedly made a hate speech against Muslims on April 2.
A video of it later surfaced on social media platforms.
In the two-minute video of the speech made outside a mosque, he could be heard using the term "jehadi" to refer to a community and threatening them if any Hindu girl is harassed by any man of that community, he would himself rape their women.
A video of him apologising for his statement surfaced on Friday evening, hours after police lodged an FIR against him.
Questioning the delay in the arrest of the seer, the Samajwadi Party had on Wednesday called the ruling BJP the "biggest enemy of brotherhood".
"Why are police still empty handed? The government should answer.
When will the bulldozer run on the accused? The CM should tell," the party asked in a tweet.
The post was followed by another tweet by SP president Akhilesh Yadav in which he asked CM Yogi Adityanath to act against the criminals hiding behind a saint's robe.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said there is no place for riots in Uttar Pradesh, stressing that the Ram Navami celebrations coinciding with Ramzan went off without any incident of violence -- not even an altercation or "tu-tu, main-main".
His remark at an event Tuesday came against the backdrop of recent cases of communal violence in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Gujarat.
Adityanath said the situation during Ram Navami reflected the "new thinking of development" in UP.
He said Ram Navami-related processions were taken out at 800 places in the state that has a population of 25 crore.
It is also the month of Ramzan and "roza-iftar" programmes are also being held, he added.
"Nowhere has there been any 'tu-tu, main-main' (altercation), leave alone rioting."
"There is no place for 'danga-phasad' (rioting)," he said, adding that the state also has no room for anarchy, goodaism and rumour-mongering.
"Uttar Pradesh has proved this on the occasion of Ram Navami, the pious 'jayanti' of 'Maryada Purshottam Shri Ram'," he said.
No communal riot was reported during Ram Navami in the state.
However, the opposition Samajwadi Party had targeted the BJP government after a hate speech against Muslims by a seer, demanding his arrest.
Bajrang Muni Das, who had allegedly made the provocative remarks in Sitapur on the first day of Navratras, was arrested on Wednesday.
In the run-up to the assembly polls that brought Adityanath to power for a second consecutive term recently, law and order was projected as one of the main agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Adityanath has repeatedly claimed that while communal clashes were a common feature in UP in the past, no riot had taken place in the state after BJP assumed power in 2017.