Samajwadi Party's Swami Prasad Maurya booked for hurting religious sentiments

Swami Prasad Maurya. Pic/Instagram

An FIR has been lodged against senior Samajwadi Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya for allegedly raising a slogan hurting religious sentiments of Hindus during a public programme attended by party president Akhilesh Yadav here, police said on Wednesday.

The FIR was lodged under IPC Section 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), Circle Officer (City) Vandana Singh said.

On Monday, Maurya attended an event where Yadav unveiled the statue of BSP founder Kanshi Ram.

According to the police complaint filed on Tuesday by Marut Tripathi, a resident of Rae Bareli, a video clip has gone viral on the internet in which Maurya, an MLC, could be seen raising the slogan, "Mile Mulayam-Kanshi Ram, hawa ho gaye Jai Shri Ram".

The complainant said the slogan has hurt the religious sentiments of the "Sanatani" society and will disturb the social harmony of society, according to police.

Maurya's former party colleague and BSP chief Mayawati reacted to the FIR, saying, "It has been the nature of SP to do politics of casteist hatred and baseless issues instead of development and public interest of UP."

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Maurya, however, said there was no reason for an FIR against him but "they" have lodged it still.

"I will explore my legal options. I don't want to politicise the issue but the government is working with hostility nowadays," he alleged.

He said when he talked about the rights of women, backwards and Dalits, some people made derogatory remarks against him in the name of religion and even threatened him. "Some gave a 'supari' (ransom) for my murder while someone, waiving a sword, said 'I will kill Swami Prasad Maurya' but no action has been taken against them till date".

Earlier this year, Maurya, a prominent OBC leader of the state, kicked off a major controversy by alleging that certain verses of the 'Ramcharitmanas' "insult" a large section of society on the basis of caste and demanded that these be "banned".

Maurya, a minister in Yogi Adityanath's first tenure as chief minister, had switched to Samajwadi Party just before the 2022 assembly elections. Before that, he was in the BSP.

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