Sanatan Dharma row: Case registered against Udhayanidhi Stalin, Priyank Kharge for hurting religious sentiments

Rampur (Uttar Pradesh): A case has been registered against Tamil Nadu Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin and Karnataka Cabinet Minister Priyank Kharge allegedly for hurting religious sentiments and promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, police sources said here on Wednesday.

The sources said that the case has been lodged by advocates Ram Singh Lodhi and Harsh Gupta at Civil Lines police station on Tuesday.

"It has been alleged that the Minister of Youth Welfare and Sports Development in Tamil Nadu government Udhayanidhi Stalin in a speech compared Sanatan Dharma with diseases like dengue, malaria and Corona and had stated that it should be eradicated like these diseases," they said.

Police sources said that the son of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Cabinet Minister in Karnataka Priyank Kharge in a statement in a newspaper on Tuesday supported Stalin and described Sanatan Dharma as a disease.

"The complainant advocate Ram Singh Lodhi has claimed that being a follower of Sanatan Dharma, his religious sentiments have been deeply hurt by such indecent comments towards religion," they said.

Police sources said that it has been alleged that the malicious statements made by these persons deliberately have adversely affected the harmony between different groups on the basis of religion.

"The case has been registered under section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence) and section 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)," they added. (UNI)