By Shuriah Niazi
NEW DELHI (AA) - A local court in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand granted bail Monday to controversial Hindu leader Yati Narsinghanand in a case filed against him for hate speech at a religious assembly in Haridwar, where calls were given for the genocide of Muslims.
District and Sessions Judge Bharat Bhushan Pandey granted bail to Narsinghanand. The judge noted that the offences for which he has been charged are only punishable by up to three years imprisonment.
Narsinghanand was arrested by Uttarakhand police on Jan. 15 for his objectionable comments about women. Later, he was also charged for hate speech, and a charge of abusing a journalist was also added.
At the Hindu religious assembly held in December in the city of Haridwar in Uttarakhand, Muslims were openly targeted by Hindu leaders who had assembled for the three-day event.
After videos of the religious assembly went viral on social media, police registered a case against the former chairman of the Shia Central Waqf Board in Uttar Pradesh, Wasim Rizvi, who recently converted to Hinduism and is known by the name Jitendra Narayan Tyagi.