Two days after arresting a cleric in Bharuch’s Amod over a social media post that could allegedly “provoke breach of communal peace”, the Bharuch District Special Operations Group (SOG) on Tuesday said that it has made another arrest in the case.
Shabbir Ali Patel, vice-president of Darul Uloom Barkat-e-Khwaja in Amod, was arrested on Tuesday in the case. On Sunday, Maulvi Abdul Rahim Rathod, was booked for ‘promoting enmity’ after he had put up a post describing the Islamic “ritualistic procedure” for animal sacrifice. Darul Uloom, an Arabic term, literally means house of knowledge.
The objectionable post came ahead of Bakrid, which was celebrated across the country on Monday.
Stating that the post could “provoke breach of communal peace”, police arrested Patel for allegedly drafting the controversial post and handing it over to Maulvi Abdul Rahim Rathod. The arrests came following an FIR lodged by sub-inspector RA Aswar.
The Bharuch SOG said that it had ascertained during investigation that it was Patel who had drafted the message and handed it over to Rathod. “The accused, Maulvi Rathod, has indulged in an act that could hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus and also breach religious harmony between the Hindu and Muslim community. It has come to light in the probe that Shabbir Ali has written the message titled ‘Process of Qurbani’ some time back and handed it over to Rathod to circulate in social media. Accordingly, Patel has been booked and arrested late on Monday night,” the SOG said in a release
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