Gujarat: Man arrested for uploading 'communally provocative' video on YouTube

A 30-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly uploading on YouTube a video of a communal clash which took place in Wadi locality in the city last week, police said on Wednesday.

The man, identified as Mayur Kadam, was arrested on Tuesday for the "communally provocative" video, they said.

According to police, the clash had taken place on Saturday during a procession taken out to mark the birth anniversary of Rajput warrior Maharana Pratap. The procession was organised by Karni Sena, an organisation of the Rajput community.

The members of the two communities hurled stones at each other, damaging a window of a religious place and some vehicles parked there. Police lobbed seven teargas shells and baton charged the mob that engaged in stone-pelting when the procession was passing through Dudhwala Mohalla in the Wadi locality, police officials had said.

"Kadam, who was present there, shot a video of the clash between the two groups and then uploaded it on YouTube.

The video soon went viral," inspector of Wadi police station, R R Vasava, said.

"The Cyber Crime police swung into action after getting the information about the communally provocative video. Kadam was nabbed from his house located in a communally-sensitive Fatehpura locality in the city," he added.

The accused was arrested under IPC section 153 (promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc, and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), he added.

After the arrest, Kadam was produced in a local court, which sent him in judicial custody.

According to Vasava, Kadam had been earlier booked in 2016 in a case related to the burning of an effigy of Islamic preacher Zakir Naik.

Meanwhile, the city police have so far arrested 10 persons in connection with the clash and also sent a notice to Dharmendrasinh Waghela, who had organised the procession, Vasava said.

"We have arrested 10 persons in connection with the June 16 clash. A notice has been sent to Waghela, the organiser of the procession. He has been directed to appear for the recording of his statement," the officer said.

Waghela, a former BJP leader, had resigned from the party after he was denied a ticket for last year's Gujarat Assembly polls. He had contested as an independent candidate from Vaghodia constituency, but lost to BJP's Madhu Srivastava.