MEERUT: After a complaint by an employee of National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), UP police on Friday registered an FIR against unidentified members of Hindu Raksha Dal for allegedly writing on a sound barrier of an elevated stretch of Delhi-Dehradun Expressway near Biharigarh in Saharanpur that the “road is not for Muslims”.SP (rural) Saharanpur, Sagar Jain, said, “Local residents informed Biharigarh police station about the graffiti on Friday morning. Officers immediately covered the message with black paint to prevent any unrest. A video is also circulating on social media in which a Hindu Raksha Dal member seemed to be taking responsibility for the act.”Jain added: “An FIR was registered under BNS section 353 (2) against unknown persons. Investigations are on and we’re trying to identify them.” BNS section 353 (2) relates to “publishing, circulating false information, rumours or alarming news (including via electronic means) intended to promote enmity, hatred, or ill-will between different religious, racial, linguistic, or regional groups”.In his complaint, NHAI official Sunil Kumar stated: “They used spray paint to write a controversial sentence against Muslims. And, hence, I being an employee of NHAI, filed an FIR against unidentified members belonging to the Hindu Raksha Dal.” Kumar is a resident of Banjarewala village in Haridwar district.In the purported video, some people, including a woman, could be seen raising religious slogans while standing next to the graffiti written both in Hindi and English. A car with Uttarakhand number plate could also be seen parked next to them.The outfit’s Ghaziabad-based president, Pinky Chaudhary, confirmed that its members were involved in the objectionable act. “Our members were involved in painting the graffiti, and they rightly did so…,” Chaudhary said.Chaudhary has several cases registered against him. The recent one being filed against him and 45 of his associates in Ghaziabad in Dec last year for handing out more than 250 swords and raising vitriolic slogans in the backdrop of the attacks against minorities in Bangladesh.
