Lucknow: In an interesting event, an eatery owner, Mohammad Taalib, in Uttar Pradesh Sambhal city has been arrested for selling meat wrapped in newspapers that had pictures of Hindu deities.
As per reports, he was slapped with IPC section 295 A (deliberate act intended to outrage religious feelings of any community) over the complaint by Hindu Jagran Manch (HJM) district president Kailash Gupta at the Sadar Police Station.
A worker at Mehak restaurant owned by Taalib, said, ''A employer had brought some newspapers from a scrap shop and was using the same for packing the food items for customers as most eateries do. It's a normal practice. We were unaware of the fact that the newspapers had pictures of Hindu Gods.''
''We didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings,'' he added.
Speaking over the same, one of Taalib's family members asserted that newspapers have been used for years to pack food items.
''Does anyone look at the headlines of a newspaper or the photos carefully before using it as a wrapper? Can anyone be sent to jail for the same? He has not hurt anyone's sentiments,'' the family member added.
''After receiving the complaint on Sunday evening, police rushed to the hotel and seized the offensive material. Since the matter is sensitive, we immediately registered an FIR and apprehended the eatery owner for hurting the religious sentiments of a particular community,'' TOI quoted Circle officer Jitendra Kumar as saying.
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