Hindutva leader, Yati Narsinghanand Giri who incited hatred and called for ‘genocide’ of Muslims in a seminar, labelled by Indian media as “hate speech conclave”, was arrested by the police.

Senior Police Officer, Swatantra Kumar said that the Yati Narsinghanand Giri, a far right-right nationalist was initially arrested on Saturday on allegations of making derogatory remarks against Muslims and women during a meeting. He appeared in front of the court the next day and remained in custody for hate speech.

Kumar claimed that Yati Narsinghanand Giri is a repeated offender and was officially charged on Monday with promoting hatred between Hindus and Muslims based on religion. The charge can carry a five-year jail term.

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In December, the three-day meeting “hate speech conclave” was organised by Hindutva leader Yati Narsinghanand in Uttarakhand’s pilgrimage city of Haridwar, India, where multiple calls to kill minorities and attack their religious spaces were made.

The gathering had speakers like Annapurna Maa, Dharamdas Maharaj from Bihar, Anand Swaroop Maharaj, Sagar Sindhuraj Maharaj, Swami Premanand Maharaj, and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ashwini Upadhyay.

“If you want to finish them off, then kill them… We need 100 soldiers who can kill 20 lakh of them to win this,” said Annapurna Maa.

“If the governments do not listen to our demand [the establishment of a Hindu Rashtra through violence against minorities], we will wage a war far scarier than the 1857 revolt,” said Anand Swaroop Maharaj.

Recently, hate crimes against religious minorities including Muslims and Christians are increased in India with the alleged support of the ruling party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Several Indian celebrities raised their voices against hate crimes against certain communities based on the grounds of religion.