Congress leader arrested for ‘kill Modi to save Constitution’ remarks

PTI :
Indian Congress leader and former Madhya Pradesh minister Raja Pateria was arrested on Tuesday, a day after a video of him urging people to “kill Modi to save the Constitution” was shared widely on social media, PTI reported.
Pateria was arrested from his residence in Hata town of the Damoh district around 5.30am, local time.
“A police team went to his house around 5.30am to inform him about the arrest,” Sub Divisional Officer of Police Virendra Bahadur Singh told PTI. “They took him to Pawai [in Panna district] around 7am.”
Several Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) leaders on Monday had shared Pataria’s video on Twitter.
“Modi will divide people on the basis of religion, caste and language,” the Congress leader is heard saying. “The future of Dalits, Adivasis and minorities is in danger. If you want to save the Constitution, be ready to kill Modi – in the sense of defeating him.” On his part, Pateria claimed that his remarks were misunderstood, reported The Indian Express.
“I did not mean to literally kill the Prime Minister but to defeat him in elections,” Pateria told the newspaper. “It was about defeating the government that is the supporter of [Nathuram] Godse’s ideology instead of Mahatma Gandhi’s.”
On Monday, a first information report was filed against Pateria in Panna. He was charged under Indian Penal Code provisions pertaining to intentional insult to provoke breach of peace, statements conducive to public mischief, criminal intimidation and provocation with intent to cause riot.
Several BJP leaders had castigated Pateria for his remarks. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had claimed that the reality of those participating in the “facade of the Bharat Jodo Yatra” has come to the fore.