New Delhi:

A Delhi University associate professor was arrested last night for a social media post referring to allegations of a ‘Shivling’ found inside Varanasi’s Gyanvapi Mosque compound, police say .

Police said Ratan Lal, who works with the Hindu College, was arrested by officers from the North Delhi Cyber ​​Police Station under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc. ., and performing acts prejudicial to the maintenance of harmony) and 295A (deliberate act of outraging the religious feelings of a class by insulting his religion).

The FIR against Mr Lal was filed on Tuesday evening following a police complaint filed by a Delhi-based lawyer. In his complaint, lawyer Vineet Jindal said Mr Lal had recently shared a “derogatory, inciting and provocative tweet about the Shivling”.

The statement made by Mr Lal on his Twitter account is “instigating and provocative”, he said in the complaint.

The matter is of a highly sensitive nature and is pending in court, the lawyer said in his complaint.

Defending his post earlier, Mr Lal said: “In India, if you talk about anything, someone’s feeling or the other will be hurt. So this is nothing new. I am a historian and I have made several observations. As I wrote them, I used very careful language in my post and always that. I will defend myself.

(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)