Akash Sagar, a social media influencer who last week chanted ‘Siya Ram Jai Jai Ram’ inside a church in Meghalaya’s East Khasi Hills district, is likely to be arrested soon, the police said on Sunday.
A senior police officer said that Meghalaya Police had learned of Sagar’s whereabouts and are taking necessary action to arrest him.
The police officer, however, refused to disclose further details about the youth.
Sagar reportedly intruded inside a church in Mawlynnong village on December 26 and chanted ‘Siya Ram Jai Jai Ram’ drawing serious criticism from people across the state.
Soon after the incident, an FIR was registered against him at Pynursla police station.
The Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) has demanded the immediate arrest of Sagar for the “blatant act of insulting and disrespecting” Christians with his objectionable act in the Mawlynnong church.
Taking a strong exception to the act, the HYC’s Central Executive Council termed it a direct attack on people following the Christian faith and belief.
Asking the police to arrest Sagar and his accomplices at the earliest and make him face the consequences of his actions according to the provisions of the law, the HYC said in a statement an example should be set by the law-enforcing agencies in Meghalaya in the instant case so that such acts are not repeated and Christians in the state are not disrespected in the future.
Meghalaya Police have registered the case after a social activist, Angela Rangad filed a complaint against the youth for allegedly harming the religious sentiments of people by intruding inside a church and chanting ‘Siya Ram Jai Jai Ram’ in the state’s East Khasi Hills district.
Rangad, in her complaint to the police, said that she came across videos on various social media including Facebook and Instagram, by one Akash Sagar, where he is found criminally trespassing the Church of Epiphany, Mawlynnong, East Khasi Hills, and deliberately desecrating the religious sanctity of the church.
“The youth deliberately and in a premeditated and planned way trespassed into the altar area and shouted non-Christian slogans and mockingly sang non-Christian songs. This act was deliberately and in collusion with two others who appear in the video, done to create communal disharmony, insulting the minority culture and to establish a majoritarian culture of hate in violation of all constitutional rights of religious freedom,” she said in her FIR.
Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma had also condemned the act and said that legal action in this regard is on.
BJP’s Meghalaya unit also earlier condemned the incident at the Mawlynnong Church, “where an individual could be seen engaging in acts that have the potential to hurt the sentiments of Christians across the state and the country”.
Demanding his immediate arrest, Chief Spokesperson of Meghalaya BJP Mariahom Kharkrang said that such cheap publicity stunts, aimed at furthering one’s personal agendas, only hurt the sensitivities of every right-thinking citizen across faiths and can act as a catalyst to inter-religious frictions.
Kharkrang in a statement said that it is important to note that Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself joins the Church leaders on Christmas eve and leads the nation in celebrating the message of universal love.
The President of Central Puja Committee, an influential Hindu organisation in Meghalaya, Naba Bhattacharjee has also condemned the act.
*Except for the heading, this story has not been edited by The enewstime.in and has been published from IANS feed.
(Meghalaya, Northeast)
