The Special Task Force here today arrested Uttar Pradesh Navnirman Sena leader Amit Jani and his associate for allegedly outraging religious feelings by posting on WhatsApp a photoshopped picture of the Taj Mahal with saffron flags atop its pinnacle and minarets.
"Amit Jani and his associate Updesh Rana were arrested here by the STF, Agra, for posting a computer-generated picture of the Taj Mahal with seven saffron flags atop its pinnacle and minarets on a WhatsApp group," an STF official said here.
The arrest has come amidst a campaign by hardline nationalists against the four-century-old Mughal monument.
Jani was earlier booked under IPC sections 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 295 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act in Agra.
In the WhatsApp post, Jani appealed to all men associated with various Hindu organisations to gather at the seventeenth century Mughal monument on November 3, triggering panic and rumours in Agra. Following this, an FIR was registered against him.
Jani was in jail for three months in 2012 for allegedly vandalising former chief minister Mayawati's statue in Lucknow's Gomati Nagar area after the Samajwadi Party came to power that year.
Jani's actual name is Amit Agarwal and he is a native of Janikhurd village of Janikhurd block of Meerut district.
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Erlier, Sangeet Som, a member of the ruling BJP had kicked up a controversy aftert he labelled the 17th-century monument a “blot” on Indian culture saying it was “built by traitors”.
“Taj Mahal should have no place in Indian history,” he had said, claiming emperor Shah Jahan, who built the mausoleum for his deceased wife Mumtaz, had “wanted to wipe out Hindus”.
