Dumri Bypoll: AIMIM Candidate Booked For 'Pro-Pakistan' Slogan Raised During Owaisi's Rally

AIMIM candidate for Dumri by-election has been booked for alleged 'pro-Pakistan' slogan raised during the party chief Asaduddin Owaisi's public rally in Jharkhand's Giridih district, a senior official said on Thursday.

Giridih Deputy Commissioner (DC) Naman Priyesh Lakra said that the FIR was lodged at Dumri police station against AIMIM candidate Abdul Mobin Rizvi, as he was the organiser of the programme, one Muzaffar Hasan Nurani and others.

The action came after a video went viral on social media, where it was heard that someone from the audience raised the 'Pakistan Zindabad' slogan during the speech of Owaisi on Wednesday.

"It came to our notice that the slogan of Pakistan Zindabad was raised by the audience during the speech of AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi. After observing the video recorded during the speech by the video observation team, it was found that the act is a violation of the model code of conduct and an attempt to disturb communal harmony," according to an official statement issued by the Giridih district administration.

The flying squad, constituted for the Dumri by-election, lodged the FIR at Dumri police station under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Representation of the People Act, it stated.

Police are on the hunt for the person who raised the slogan.

Dumri Block Development Officer (BDO), Anwesha Ona, who is also a member of the flying squad, said that the alleged video footage was examined with the footage of their videographers' team before lodging the FIR.

"Now police will take action accordingly," she said.

The AIMIM Jharkhand president Md Shakir, however, refuted the allegation terming it a "tampered video".

Owaisi was in Giridih district on Wednesday and addressed a public rally to seek votes for his party's candidate Md Abdul Mobin Rizvi in the Dumri assembly bypoll. The polling for the by-election to the Dumri assembly constituency will be held on September 5, and the votes will be counted on September 8.

The by-election was necessitated due to the death of JMM MLA Jagarnath Mahto, the former education minister, in April.

The JMM has fielded Mahto's wife Bebi Devi as the candidate of the INDIA bloc, while the AJSU Party has nominated Yashoda Devi as the NDA candidate.

In the 2019 assembly elections, Mahto defeated AJSU Party's Yashoda Devi by a margin of 34,288 votes. AIMIM's Rizvi was in the fourth position with 24,132 votes.