Police arrested a politician from India's ruling Congress party on Saturday over a threat to chop fiery Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi "into little pieces" if he stirred religious violence in the nation's most populous state. A video handed to police allegedly shows Imran Masood, fielded by Congress as a candidate in national elections in Uttar Pradesh state, making the threat against the hardline leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at a rally.
Police said they had arrested Masood under hate speech laws, and that he had been remanded in custody for 14 days by a judge. Masood will be detained while police investigate whether there are sufficient grounds to file formal charges against him. "Imran Masood was arrested this morning (Saturday)," a police officer at Deoband police station, where Masood was taken into custody, told AFP.
Masood made the alleged threat in relation to deadly riots that erupted in the state of Gujarat in 2002, when Modi had just become its chief minister. "(Modi) thinks this is Gujarat where the Muslim population is four percent. There are 42 percent Muslims here..." he is seen to say. If Modi were to make Masood's constituency into Gujarat, "he will be chopped into tiny pieces," Masood adds. Masood is Congress's candidate in Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur, which has a large Muslim population.