Chhattisgarh police arrested Hindu seer Kalicharan Maharaj from neighbouring Madhya Pradesh on Thursday wee hours and brought to Raipur and slapped sedition charges in a local court which sent him to police remand for two-days.

Kalicharan had unleashed abusing language at Mahatma Gandhi at a crowded Dharam Sansad on December 25-26 in Raipur.

The BJP has condemned the arrest and alleged that the Chhattisgarh police breached inter-state protocol and did not take Madhya Pradesh police into confidence. Dozens of Hindu hardliners thronged district court here and raised slogans in favour of the seer.

The Godman had triggered a serious controversy when he hailed Mahatma Gandhi’s killer Nathuram Godse and made derogatory remarks against Gandhi on camera amid clapping by invitees at Dharma Sansad in which leaders of both the Congress and the BJP were invited.

Kalicharan’s brutal remarks against Bapu had irked Chhattisgarh’s ruling Congress and Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel instructed police teams to arrest Kalicharan from wherever he is hiding after an FIR was lodged against him at Raipur’s Tikrapara police station.

After days of intense search, Raipur police finally picked him on Thursday from Bageshwar Dham, about 25 km from Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh and brought him to Raipur by road.  

Madhya Pradesh’s ruling BJP strongly objected the Rs breach of inter-state protocol by Raipur police’ and home minister Narottam Mishra opined Rs the Chhattisgarh government could have summoned Kalicharan or could have called him by serving a notice’.

Mishra asked Madhya Pradesh DGP to immediately contact Chhattisgarh DGP and lodge a protest for not informing MP police before making arrest and violating inter-state protocol. BJP’s senior leader in Chhattisgarh Brijmohan Agrawal termed the arrest Rs a gross misuse of power by Congress government and described the arrest against the principles of Gandhi’s teachings’. 

Rs Rs Why actions and sedition charges against the seer? Is this the way of Bhupesh government to hound an individual while no actions were taken against those who abused Lord Ram? asked Agrawal in a tweet.

Bhupesh Baghel who aggressively reacted to Kalicharan Maharaj’s abusive speech from day one at Raipur’s Dharam Sansad, hailed his arrest and remarked, Rs justice should not be delayed to such a longer period that it looked injustice’ and he asked Narottam Mishra to reveal ‘whether he is happy or sad about the arrest of the person who abused Mahatma Gandhi’.