After Mathura namaz row, 4 held for reciting Hanuman Chalisa inside mosque

Four persons have been arrested for allegedly reciting Hanuman Chalisa inside a mosque in Goverdhan, a day after namaz offered on the premises of a temple here triggered a row.

One of the four men arrested over Tuesday's Hanuman Chalisa recitation claims to be a local leader of the BJP's youth wing.

The men, aged between 18 and 25, entered the Idgah on the Goverdhan-Barsana road and recited the Hindu prayer, police said.

Police in Goverdhan town, about 20 km from Mathura, arrested them for disturbing the peace and registered an FIR under section 151 of the CrPC.

Saurabh Nambardar, Raghav Mittal, Rauki and Kanha were produced in the court of Goverdhan sub-divisional magistrate Rahul Yadav, who ordered their release on a surety of Rs 2 lakh each.

Superintendent of Police (SP), Mathura, Gaurav Grover said, "Police and administration of Mathura district are monitoring everything directly or indirectly. If any person tries to spread chaos or break the dignity of any religious place, stern action will be taken against them."

"Nobody is above the law and if any person tries to disturb the peaceful environment then a strong action will be taken against him or her," Ram Mishra, District Magistrate (DM), Mathura said.

In a video clip on social media, one of the arrested men is heard saying that if namaz can be offered for communal harmony in a temple, reciting Hanuman Chalisa should be allowed in a mosque.

Meanwhile, Faisal Khan, one of the four persons who allegedly offered 'Namaz' inside the Nanda Bhavan Temple complex in Mathura, was on Tuesday sent to 14-day judicial custody by a local court.

Khan, who was arrested from Delhi on Monday, was later handed over to Uttar Pradesh Police for questioning in the matter.

The UP Police had on Sunday registered an FIR against four persons -- Faisal Khan, Chand Mohammad, Alok Ratan, and Nilesh Gupta -- at Barsana Police Station for allegedly offering 'namaz' in the Mathura temple.

According to the FIR, while two of them offered 'namaz' in the courtyard of the temple on October 29, the other two recorded the incident, and the video was posted on social media.

As per the FIR, they came to temple on Thursday and Khan chanted a few lines from the Ramcharitmanas there.

The group members told the priest that they are on a 'parikarma' (circumambulation) of the 'Brij Chaurasi kos' on bicycles, according to the FIR against them.

The FIR was registered on the complaint filed by Nandbaba temple priest Kanha Goswami under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including charges of promoting enmity, injuring or defiling a place of worship, and public mischief among others.