Haryana Congress leader Pankaj Punia arrested by police over abusive, Hinduphobic tweet

A day after his hateful and bigoted tweet created garnered heavy criticism on social media, Haryana Congress leader Pankaj Punia has been arrested by the police. As per reports, Punia was arrested by the Haryana police hours after an FIR was filed against him in Lucknow.

Haryana: Congress leader Pankaj Punia arrested by Police in Karnal, over charges of making an objectionable post on social media. He will be produced before court tomorrow.

— ANI (@ANI) May 20, 2020

In his attempts to criticise UP CM Yogi Adityanath, Punia had used vile, derogatory slurs against saffron-clad Hindus, and had defiled religious slogans. In a tweet, he had written “Congress had wanted to run buses to help poor migrants, but the Bisht government started politicising the matter. Only Bhagwa-clad Sanghis can do such neech (lowly, disgraceful) activities.

He had further written, “These people, (saffron-clad Hindus) are the ones who exhume corpses and rape them. They get naked in front of their daughters and masturbate while chanting Jai Shri Ram slogans.”

Multiple FIRs

Multiple FIRs have been filed against Punia for his vile remarks targeting religion and beliefs. Apart from the FIR in Lucknow, FIRs have also been filed in Noida and Delhi, and Aligarh too. The FIR in Lucknow, filed at Hazratganj police station, has charges under 153 A, 295A, 505 (2) IPC and 67 of IT act. In Lucknow, the FIR was filed by the UP police cyber cell.

As per reports, Punia will be presented in court today. Some reports say that he will soon be handed over to the UP police.

Congress’ bus list fiasco

Punia’s tweet was in response to the congress political stunt that was exposed by the UP government. Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi had claimed that her party will make 1000 buses available to ferry migrant workers. After the UP government agreed to their ‘offer’ Congress ad provided a list of vehicles.

But the list was found to contain the numbers of auto-rickshaws, trucks, ambulances etc, while details of many vehicles were not available. Some two-wheelers and blacklisted vehicles were also listed. Congress leaders had gone berserk after the political stunt did not fan out as they expected and had resorted to vile allegations and threats against journalists, bureaucrats, even their spouses, UP government and BJP.