Mahatma effigy shooting: Police arrests key accused after outrage

A leader of Hindu Mahasabha and her husband were arrested on Wednesday on the outskirts of the district and remanded in judicial custody for allegedly shooting at an effigy of Mahatma Gandhi and glorifying his assassination on his death anniversary, police said here. Puja Shakun Pandey, who is the national general secretary of the Hindu Mahasabha, and her husband Ashok Pandey were nabbed in the early hours from a house by the Aligarh police, Superintendent of Police (City) Ashutosh Diwedi said.

They were absconding since January 30 after they were booked along with nine others for burning an effigy of Mahatma Gandhi and pumping three bullets into it on the day the country was observing his death anniversary, he said. The two were the main accused in the last week's incident. Both of them were brought to Aligarh and produced before an Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate who sent them to judicial custody for 14 days, the police said.

Earlier, three persons were arrested in the case. The case was registered after a video clip of the incident, which occurred outside the office of the Hindu Mahasabha in Naurangabad locality under Gandhi Park police station area, went viral.

The Mahasabha had announced that it would observe Mahatma Gandhi's death anniversary as 'shauraya diwas' (Day of Valour). SSP A Kulhary had told PTI that the FIR was lodged in this connection under sections 147, 148 and 149 of the IPC related to rioting, use of force or violence by an unlawful assembly.

(With inputs from agencies.)