Three persons have been booked on charges of insulting Hindu deities and desecrating idols during a programme in Sitapur district.
Station House Officer of Maholi police station, Anup Shukla, said that a local resident, Puneet Mishra, informed the cops that Siyaram, Jagdev and Nisha had organised a religious event to propagate Buddhism.
"The complainant said that the accused persons first began hurting Hindu sentiments by insulting the religion and later desecrated the idols of gods and goddesses," Shukla said.
The SHO added that on the basis of Puneet's complaint and a video of the act shown by him, an FIR was lodged against the accused under sections 295A (act intended to outrage religious feelings),153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) of the Indian Penal Code and other relevant charges. "A team has been formed which will probe the case and take statements from other villagers," the SHO said.
Meanwhile in Shahjahanpur, half a dozen police personnel were injured and police vehicles were damaged when Khetihar Mazdoor Kisan Sangathan activists highlighting the stray cattle menace in the area pelted them with stones, police said on Wednesday.
Khetihar Mazdoor Kisan Sangathan national president Sudhir Kumar Chauhan and 15 of his supporters had been arrested, police said.
Hundreds of activists of the organisation sat on a dharna on the railway track in Tilhar to highlight the stray cattle menace, Additional Superintendent of Police Sanjay Kumar said.
As soon as the police reached the spot and tried to remove them, the protesters claimed that they were opposing the shifting of a Hanuman temple in Kachhiyani Kheda and started moving in its direction, Kumar said. When the police tried to stop them, some in the crowd started pelting cops with stones. The police were forced to use mild force to disperse the crowd, Kumar added.
Six police personnel were injured and sent to hospital for treatment while three official vehicles were damaged.
Police and armed constabulary personnel have been deployed at the spot, Kumar said.