The Gujarat Police on Monday said that 30 persons have been arrested for putting a saffron flag atop a dargah in Veraval taluka of Gir Somnath district.
On Saturday, members of an unauthorised Hanuman Jayanti procession had put a saffron flag atop the Magrebisha Bapu dargah in Vakhariya Bazar area of Veraval taluka. Several people involved in the act made videos of it with their mobile phones and circulated those videos on social media, according to Gir Somnath Superintendent of Police Manoharsinh Jadeja.
Jadeja said, "After the videos went viral, people from both communities started gathering on Saturday night. However, police arrived at the site quickly, dispersed the crowd and took control of the situation. A flag march was also held in sensitive areas in the vicinity.
"Two FIRs were registered on Sunday. One under IPC sections 153A (promoting enmity between two communities) and section 295A (outraging religious feelings), while the other was under section 188 for taking out a procession without permission."
Fact-checker Mohammed Zubair shared a video of the incident on Twitter and claimed that around 100 people were part of the procession.
Arrests were made on the basis of the videos, according to Jadeja. Among those arrested, eight were arrested for allegedly putting a flag atop the dargah. The 22 others were arrested for carrying out the procession without any permission from the authorities.
With PTI inputs
