Uttar Pradesh: 2 arrested for sharing modified image of Taj Mahal with saffron flags

Uttar Pradesh Navnirman Sena leader Amit Jani and his associate were arrested by the Special Task Force here today for allegedly outraging religious feelings by posting on WhatsApp a modified picture of the Taj Mahal with saffron flags atop its pinnacle and minarets.

"Amit Jani and his associate Updesh Rana were arrested here by the STF, Agra, for posting a computer-generated picture of the Taj Mahal with seven saffron flags atop its pinnacle and minarets on a WhatsApp group," an STF official said here.

Jani was earlier booked under IPC sections 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 295 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act in Agra.

In the WhatsApp post, Jani appealed to all men associated with various Hindu organisations to gather at the seventeenth century Mughal monument on November 3, triggering panic and rumours in Agra. Following this, an FIR was registered against him.

Jani was in jail for three months in 2012 for allegedly vandalising former chief minister Mayawati's statue in Lucknow's Gomati Nagar area after the Samajwadi Party came to power that year.

Jani's actual name is Amit Agarwal and he is a native of Janikhurd village of Janikhurd block of Meerut district.