Application seeks FIR against Akhilesh, Owaisi and others

VARANASI An application was filed in a Varanasi court, seeking directives to the police for registering an FIR against seven people, including Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and his brother, for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.

Advocate Harishankar Pandey moved the application in the court of additional chief judicial magistrate Ujjawal Upadhyay. The court fixed May 24 as the date of hearing, said Pandey.

The seven people included Mufti-e-Banaras Maulana Abdul Batin Nomani, secretary, Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee; joint secretary SM Yasin; SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, his brother Akbaruddin Owaisi, Maulana Abdul Vagi and Yusuf Khan.

The SP chief, while speaking to media in Ayodhya recently, had said, “In our Hinduism, place a stone anywhere, install a red flag there, under a peepul (fig) tree, and it becomes a temple.”

After the petitioner’s claim of the finding of a Shivling in Gyanvapi mosque, the AIMIM chief had said that the structure was not a Shivling but a fountain.