LUCKNOW — The police on Wednesday registered cases against 13 persons, including a woman leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, in Aligarh for firing at an effigy of Mahatma Gandhi with an air pistol, a senior police official said.
“Today on the occasion of the 71st death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, workers of Hindu Mahasabha fired at the effigy of Mahatma Gandhi.
“The incident took place in a house in Naurangabad locality of the city. Later, the video of the event went viral on social media,” Senior Superintendent of Police of Aligarh Akash Kulhary told PTI.
The video shows Hindu Mahasabha leader Pooja Shakun Pandey lead chants of “Mahatma Nathuram Godse amar rahe (Long live Mahatma Nathuram Godse)” before shooting at the effigy. Fake blood is seen seeping out of the effigy.
Pandey said she was starting a tradition of recreating Gandhi’s assassination every year on 30 January, comparing it to the burning of Ravana effigies every Dussehra, Times of India reported.
According to the report, she held Gandhi responsible for the Partition and called Godse’s act of killing Gandhi admirable.
After the video went viral, a case was registered against 13 persons associated with Hindu Mahasabha including Pandey, the SSP said, adding no arrests have been made so far.
The police are conducting raids to nab the accused persons.
Nathuram Godse assassinated Gandhi in New Delhi on 30 January, 1948.
(With PTI inputs)