Raipur, (Samajweekly) Religious leader Kalicharan Maharaj, who was arrested on Thursday and charged with sedition for allegedly abusing Mahatma Gandhi, has been sent to police remand for two days by a court.
The self-proclaimed godman was arrested from Madhya Pradesh by the Chhattisgarh police in the early hours of Thursday. He was later brought to Raipur, and presented at a local court.
Kalicharan had used abusive language against Mahatma Gandhi while praising his assassin Nathuram Godse at a religious event — “Dharma Sansad”, on December 25-26, in Raipur.
He made the derogatory remarks against Mahatma Gandhi at the event in which leaders of both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were invited.
Kalicharan’s remarks against the Father of the Nation had irked Chhattisgarh’s ruling Congress party, and Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel instructed the police team to arrest the godman.
An FIR was lodged against him at Raipur’s Tikrapara police station.
After days of intense search, Raipur police finally picked him on Thursday from Bageshwar Dham, about 25 km from Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh and brought him to Raipur by road.
The arrest, however, has sparked a political row.
The BJP has condemned the arrest and alleged that the Chhattisgarh police breached inter-state protocol and did not take Madhya Pradesh police into confidence.
A number of his followers thronged the district court here and raised slogans in favour of the religious leader.
Madhya Pradesh’s ruling BJP strongly objected the “breach of inter-state protocol by Raipur police”, with the state’s Home Minister Narottam Mishra saying “the Chhattisgarh government could have summoned Kalicharan or could have called him by serving a notice”.
Mishra has asked Madhya Pradesh DGP to contact the Chhattisgarh DGP and lodge a protest for not informing the state police before making arrest and “violating inter-state protocol”.
Senior BJP leader in Chhattisgarh, Brijmohan Agrawal termed the arrest “a gross misuse of power by Congress government and described the arrest against the principles of Gandhi’s teachings”.
Meanwhile, Baghel, who had aggressively reacted to Kalicharan Maharaj’s abusive speech, hailed his arrest. He said: “Justice should not be delayed to such a longer period that it looked injustice.”
He also asked Narottam Mishra to reveal “whether he is happy or sad over the arrest of the person who abused Mahatma Gandhi”.
