FIR lodged against Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide for questioning Mahatma Gandhi’s parentage

“It is said that Mahatma Gandhi’s name is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, but Karamchand Gandhi was not Mahatma Gandhi’s father,” Mr. Bhide had said.

Maharashtra’s Amravati district’s police on Saturday registered a case against radical Hindutva leader Sambhaji Bhide for allegedly made a statement questioning the parentage of Mahatma Gandhi, an official said. A First Information Report (FIR) has been lodged a day after the Maharashtra unit of the Congress party on July 28 sought his arrest in Maharashtra’s Assembly.

The Rajapeth police have registered the case against Mr. Bhide under Indian Penal Code Section 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), the official said.

During his tour of Vidarbha, Mr. Bhide had addressed a gathering at Bharat Mangal Hall in the Badnera Road area of Amravati. “It is said that Mahatma Gandhi’s name is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, but Karamchand Gandhi was not Mahatma Gandhi’s father. A Muslim landlord was his real father.... Karamchand, while working for a Muslim landlord, had defrauded the man, and had run away. The Muslim landlord in anger had then forcefully brought Karamchand’s wife to his own home,” Mr. Bhide had said.

“In Amravati, Sambhaji Bhide made a shameless and derogatory remark against the Father of the Nation, calculated to spread hatred and divisiveness in society. This person must be arrested immediately. How can he roam free after making derogatory remarks about Mahatma Gandhi?” senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on July 28 had said.

Mr. Bhide heads the fringe Sangli-based outfit Shiv Pratishthan Hindustan. In the past, it has been associated with the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which Mr. Bhide left to set up his own outfit in the 1980s.

An FIR has been registered against him and right-wing Hindutva leader Milind Ekbote, executive president of the fringe Hindutva outfit Samasta Hindu Aghadi for their involvement in the Bhima Koregaon caste violence of 2017. He has been charged with attempt to murder; punishment to a member of an unlawful assembly; punishment for rioting; rioting armed with deadly weapon; deliberate and malicious acts; intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs; and wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot.

In January 2020, Mr. Bhide, also known as ‘Guruji’, had called for a shutdown across Sangli district in condemnation of Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut’s remarks against BJP leader and former Satara MP Udayanraje Bhosale, the 13th direct descendant of King Shivaji.