Rajasthan man threatens to behead colleague for backing Nupur, held

The Jodhpur police on Thursday arrested an advocate's clerk for allegedly threatening to chop off the head of a colleague for posting a WhatsApp status supporting suspended Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma over her controversial remarks on Prophet Mohammed.

The accused, Sohail Khan, started threatening the complainant, Mahendra Singh Rajpurohit, soon after he posted the WhatsApp status on June 6, the police said.

The principal seat of the Rajasthan high court reopened after summer vacation on Monday and Khan threatened Rajpurohit again.

Following this, Rajpurohit lodged a complaint and Khan was arrested, they said.

Sharma's remarks on the Prophet during a TV debate triggered protests across the country and drew sharp reactions from many Gulf countries.

The BJP subsequently suspended her from the party.

In a similar incident, an advocate's clerk was booked for allegedly sending an objectionable message in a WhatsApp group on the murder of a tailor in Udaipur, the police said.

The accused was identified as Vikram Singh, they said.

Singh sent an objectionable message in a WhatsApp group of advocates' clerks on July 1 but instantly deleted it, saying that he forwarded it by mistake, according to the police.

Later, Singh's colleague Nadeem confronted him over the message and lodged a complaint against him. Both are advocates' clerks in the Rajasthan High Court's Jaipur bench, the police said.

Singh filed a petition in the high court seeking quashing of the FIR registered against him.

A single-judge bench of Justice Birendra Kumar heard the plea on Wednesday and stayed Singh's arrest. It also directed the police to provide security to Singh and his family.

"The petitioner shall not be arrested in the aforesaid FIR till further orders with conditions that petitioner shall fully cooperate with the investigation of the case.

"The state respondents are directed to ensure protection to (of) the life and liberty of the petitioner and his family which cannot be at stake otherwise than due process established by law," the court said in its order.

A tailor, Kanhaiya Lal, was hacked to death on June 28 by two men, Riaz Akhtari and Ghouse Mohammad, with a cleaver at his shop in Udaipur's Dhan Mandi area to avenge an "insult to Islam".