VHP calls for bandh to protest
against arrest of its leader in MP

The VHP on Monday called for a bandh in Dewas, Ujjain and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh to protest against the arrest of its senior leader Dharmendra.

He was arrested by the Dewas police on Sunday at the Ujjain railway station for allegedly making an inflammatory speech at Dewas.

Police had produced Dharmendra in the court of a judicial magistrate in Dewas and lodged him in the Ujjain jail on Sunday night, official sources said.

Dharmendra had left Dewas before the police could arrest him. Later, acting on a tip-off, police arrested the VHP leader before he could board a train at Ujjain station and brought him back to Dewas.

Talking to PTI, VHP leader Prakash Ratnaparkhi on Monday said VHP would also submit a memorandum in this regard to the governor after staging protests in Indore, Bhopal, Khargone and Ujjain.

The Bajrang Dal would burn the effigies of Chief Minister Digvijay Singh to protest against the arrest, which they alleged was 'aimed at showing disrespect to the entire Hindu society'.