Five students held for graffiti against Citizenship Act

Five students of the Maharaja Sayajirao University here were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly making objectionable graffiti, which included the word 'Modi', to protest the new Citizenship Act, police said.

The students, from the university's Fine Arts faculty, made the 'swastika' sign with black spray colour in place of 'o' in the word 'Modi', a police official said.

Search was underway for two other students, who were absconding, he said.

The students selected places like the police headquarters, Kala Ghoda Circle, wall of Fatehgunj pavilion and the wall of a hostel near Rosary School to make the graffiti in order to attract attention of the public, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone-2), Sandeep Chaudhary said.

The wrote "no CAB Modi" and made the 'swastika' sign in place of 'o' in the word 'Modi', the police said.

"They used slogans with certain symbols in their graffiti to intentionally hurt religious sentiments of a particular community and affect public peace and cause riots against members of a community. They also damaged public property," a release issued by the police said.

Those arrested were identified as Pulkit Gandhi (20), Rajat Vyas (19), Ruchir Nair (21), Aryan Sharma (24) and Ayajin Jonson (23), Chaudhary said.

Two others, identified as Renil and Rishi Nair, were absconding, he said.

The seven accused got together and discussed about protests taking place in different parts of the country against the Citizenship Act, and decided "to have an effect of the protest in Vadodara as well", he said.

"Therefore, they decided to make the graffiti with slogans and symbols using colour spray so that people here also get provoked to protest against the new citizenship law," he said.

"We examined the CCTV footage to nab the accused after registering an FIR," Chaudhary said.

The FIR was registered against the accused on Monday for "using provocative and humiliating words" to hurt sentiments of people from one community and cause violence, and also damaging public property, he said.

They were booked under IPC Sections 295 (defiling place of worship), 298 (uttering words with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 505 (1)(b)(c) (intent to incite any class or community to commit any offence against any other class or community), and 505 (2) (statements creating or promoting enmity, hatred or ill will).

The accused were also charged under sections of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, the police added.