VHP leader Dharma Bhaiyya arrested for trying to incite violence

VHP's district general secretary Dharma Bhaiyya was arrested in Gonda town on the charges of trying to incite violence, prompting an unruly mob to pelt stones at two police stations there.

Bhaiyya was arrested yesterday in Gonda town, about 40 kms from here, after he stopped three trucks transporting buffaloes to a local meat export factory in the outskirts of Aligarh and incited his supporters to set fire to the vehicles, police said.

A team of police officials, however, reached the spot in time and impounded the trucks and arrested eleven persons for illegally transporting the livestock, they added. Police said the VHP leader was arrested for stopping these trucks and taking the law into his own hands besides trying to whip up public emotion on the issue. 

Following the arrest, police said his supporters indulged in stone pelting at police stations in Gonda and Madrak. "Senior police officials rushed to the spot and defused the situation," a police official said. Bhaiyya has been kept at Banna Devi Police Station in the city as a precautionary measure, he said.