A youth was arrested for allegedly insulting the national flag and cleaning his face with it in Budaun district, police said on Wednesday.
A purported video of the act had earlier surfaced on social media and caught local people's eye and they reported the matter to the police.
Shahrukh, a resident of Dhel village in Zarif Nagar, was booked for insulting the national flag and sent to jail, Additional Superintendent of Police (Rural) Siddharth Verma said.
In the video, Shahrukh is allegedly seen cleaning his face with the national flag and then trampling the flag under his foot.
Meanwhile, in yet another major crackdown, nine people were arrested by police in Azamgarh for allegedly trying to illegally convert Hindus to Christianity under the garb of exorcism.
The nine accused were arrested from Azamgarh's Saraimeer neighbourhood.
Police said that they got a tip-off from a Bajrang Dal member and raided a house in the Ambedkar Nagar colony. Upon searching the house, police found religious books inside the house and detained around a dozen people. Later, among the 12 detained people, nine were arrested by police. The police also said that the nine arrested accused had been booked for carrying out illegal conversions.
It may be mentioned that on Monday, the Supreme Court observed that there cannot be any forced religious conversions. Justice Shah was hearing an affidavit filed by the Centre regarding legislation against forced religious conversion.
However, due to paucity of time, the hearing could not be completed and it has been adjourned to December 5. Advocate Sanjay Hegde opposed the public interest litigation (PIL) and said that the petitioner had a political face.
Advocate Hegde said, "He had earlier filed the same petition in the Delhi High Court and both times it was withdrawn. This is a political interest litigation."
To this , Justice Shah replied and asked, "Do you mean to say that we must allow forced conversion?"
Following this Justice Shah observed that there cannot be any forced religious conversion. The Centre told Supreme Court that legislation against forced religious conversion was necessary to protect vulnerable sections of society, including socially and economically backward classes.