The Aryavarth Express
Agency (Surat): On Saturday, Surat Police detained a Muslim cleric accused of devising a plot to assassinate the leader of a Hindu organization. The senior police official reported that the cleric is also suspected of issuing threats against the chief editor of a TV channel and several BJP leaders in Telangana, including an MLA and a former party spokesperson.
The cleric has been charged under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including 153(A) for attacks based on religion or race, 467, 468, and 471 related to document forgery, and 120(B) for criminal conspiracy. Charges under the Information Technology Act have also been applied.
The police investigation uncovered that the 27-year-old cleric, who teaches at a madrasa, had been communicating with contacts in Pakistan and Nepal for the past two years. “These foreign contacts, named Dongar and Sehnaz respectively, purportedly incited the cleric by claiming that Hindu organizations in India were continuously defaming the Prophet,” a police official explained.
Surat’s Police Commissioner, Anupam Singh Gehlot, detailed that the cleric had allegedly conspired to arrange a contract killing, offering Rs 1 crore to eliminate the Hindu leader and to procure weapons from Pakistan for the assassination.
“The Surat City Crime Branch had been monitoring the suspect after receiving tips about his anti-national activities. He was apprehended in the Chowk Bazar area, and evidence of his communication with foreign nationals was found on his mobile,” Gehlot stated.
Furthermore, the cleric was found to have used a SIM card provided by his handlers from Pakistan and Nepal and utilized social media to fuel communal unrest. He allegedly posted disrespectful comments about Hinduism, uploaded inappropriate images of the Indian flag, and solicited arms from abroad.
“The suspect had connections through WhatsApp with numbers from several countries, including Pakistan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, and Laos,” the police release concluded.
