Hindutva leaders Milind Ekbote, Kalicharan Maharaj booked for hate speech by Pune Police

The Khadak Police have lodged an FIR against Hindutva leader Milind Ekbote of Samast Hindu Aghadi organisation, Kalicharan Maharaj and others for allegedly making provocative speeches during a public programme held in Pune last week.

Ekbote is one of the main accused in the Bhima-Koregaon riots case and had been arrested by the rural police on charges of instigation and delivering inflammatory speech ahead of the bicentennial celebrations of the battle of Bhima Koregaon. As per police officar Somnath Dhage, an FIR was registered on Tuesday at Khadak police station. The police took cognizance of the inflammatory video clip which went viral on social media and initiated a criminal probe into the act.

According to police, a programme was organised at Natubaug on December 19 to celebrate the “Shivpratap Din” to mark the killing of Afzalkhan by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. The accused made statements that could incite people and hurt religious sentiments. The other accused booked in the case have been identified as Mohanrao Shete, Deepak Nagpure, Nandkishore Ekbote and Digendra Kumar.

Recently, Kalicharan Maharaj was booked by the Chhattisgarh police for his provocative and derogatory utterances against Mahatma Gandhi. A section of the state legislators had demanded that he be booked under the relevant sections of carrying out anti national activities. The city police in their complaint stated that the accused had made derogatory utterances regarding Christian and Muslim communities.