Hisar, Oct 17: The Haryana Police on Sunday said cricketer Yuvraj Singh was arrested and released on bail in an alleged casteist remarks case in compliance with a high court order.
Singh was accused of making casteist remarks against another cricketer during an Instagram chat last year.
Superintendent of Police (Hansi) Nitika Gahlaut said over the phone, "We only made a formal arrest and he was released on bail in compliance of the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court."
"Yuvraj Singh came to Hansi on Saturday and we made a formal arrest. He was released on bail bond after a few hours," DSP (Hansi) Vinod Shankar said.
While noting that the Haryana police is seeking only Singh's "formal arrest" in the case, the high court had last week directed that upon joining the probe with the investigating officer, if the cricketer is arrested, he would be released on interim bail upon furnishing bail and surety bonds.
The high court was listening to a plea by the cricketer seeking quashing of an FIR filed against him earlier this year under sections of the IPC and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act based on a complaint by lawyer Rajat Kalsan at the Hansi Police Station in Hisar.
Kalsan had filed the police complaint last year, alleging that Singh's comment had hurt the sentiments of the Dalit community and a large number of people had watched the video on social media.
Expressing regret over the comments, Singh had earlier tweeted, "I understand that while I was having a conversation with my friends, I was misunderstood, which was unwarranted. However, as a responsible Indian I want to say that if I have unintentionally hurt anybody's sentiments or feelings, I would like to express regret for the same."
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New Delhi: The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India on Thursday slammed RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for his reported remark that Pranab Mukherjee, when he was President, had said tribals would turn "anti-national" if there is no "ghar wapsi"Catholic Bishops.'
In a statement issued here, CBCI, a body of Catholic Bishops, referred to reports which said Bhagwat, at an event on Monday, claimed that Mukherjee, while he was President had appreciated ghar wapsi and told him that had it not been for the Sangh's work on reconversion, a section of Adivasis would have turned "anti-national".The CBCI called the report "shocking".
"Fabricated personal conversation being attributed to a former president of India and its posthumous publication with the vested interest of an organization with questionable credibility raises a grave issue of national importance," the CBCI claimed.
"Is it not the violent ghar wapsi program of VHP and other similar organizations, curtailing the exercise of freedom of conscience of economically deprived tribals, the real anti-national activity?" it asked.
'Ghar wapsi' is a term used by the RSS and affiliated organisations to refer to reconversion of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism, based on the belief that they were originally Hindus before converting to other religions.
The CBCI also questioned why Bhagwat did not speak about it while Mukherjee was alive.
"We, the 2.3 percent of Indian citizens who are Christians feel extremely hurt by such manipulated and motivated propaganda unleashed," it said.
In a post on X following the statement issued by CBCI, Trinamool Congress leader Derek O'Brien said, "Speak up. This is a start!"
"Bishops body have issued a statement condemning remarks made by Dr Mohan Bhagwat and RSS for defaming the Christian community," he said.
O'Brien added that they should ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi more questions, including why Christmas Day has been turned into "Good Governance Day".
The TMC leader, in a blogpost earlier this month, had said "hard questions" must be asked to the government with regards to the Christian community, including why the FCRA has been 'weaponised', and why has Manipur been 'ignored'.