Congress Lok Sabha candidate Imran Masood was today arrested for his hate speech in which he allegedly threatened to “chop” Narendra Modi “into pieces”, remarks that had sparked an outrage.
Masood, 40, who was arrested in the wee hours by police from his residence here, said he had done no wrong.
“It is all BJP’s plotting. I don’t have any remorse as I did no wrong. I will not apologise either to Narendra Modi or to the BJP,” the Congress leader, who had yesterday expressed regret for his remarks, told presspersons.
Masood would be produced in a Deoband court later in the day.
A video footage of the election rally in Saharanpur, showing Masood attacking the BJP Prime Ministerial candidate, had gone viral on the Web.
SSP Saharanpur Manoj Kumar said, “We received a video footage of Masood. Based on its review a case was registered in Deoband Police Station against him“.
“Cases have been registered against him under Section 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings or any class by insulting religion or religious beliefs), 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC, Section 125 (promoting enmity between classes in connection with election) of Representation of People Act, and 310 SC/ST Act,” he said.
Necessary probe is being carried out and legal proceedings will be held, Kumar said.
The Congress candidate was seen in the video as saying that “If Modi tries to make Uttar Pradesh into Gujarat, then we will chop him into tiny pieces...I am not scared of getting killed or attacking someone. I will fight against Modi. He thinks UP is Gujarat. Only 4 per cent Muslims are there in Gujarat, while there are 42 per cent Muslims in UP.”