New Delhi: The federal ministry that deals with the Indian Systems of Medicine has asked the Delhi police to probe a report that alleged Muslims were discriminated in the selection for yoga trainers.

The Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) on March 15 filed a complaint after reports about the non-inclusion of Muslims appeared in the media. The report claimed a Right To Information (RTI) query as its base.

The Delhi police Tuesday quizzed Pushp Sharma, a journalist who is accused of forging the response from the ministry on the matter.

Police arrested Sharma after the report appeared in ‘The Milli Gazette’ and other media outlets. The report quoted an RTI reply from the AYUSH ministry as saying that as per the government policy, it did not recruit any Muslim as yoga trainer.

Earlier, the AYUSH Ministry rejected the report as ‘fabricated and mischievous’ RTI reply which had claimed that the federal government does not recruit Muslims in the ministry as a policy.

The ministry noted with anguish “certain mischievous misinformation being spread in certain section of media and social media” quoting an RTI reply. The report mentions about Annexure I to that letter, which the ministry claims was fabricated. Neither the ministry nor any of its agencies have issued such a reply, it added.

“The Ministry strongly condemns this piece of misreporting, clearly aimed at causing chasm between different sections of society and promoting disharmony and mistrust with ulterior motives,” the ministry said in a statement. It also said the ministry was initiating proper action in this matter.

The Ministry of AYUSH was formed on November 9, 2014 by elevating the Department of AYUSH that aimed to develop education and research in Indian traditional medicine and other alternative medical systems.

The department was created in 1995 as the Department of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy. It was renamed as AYUSH in 2003 and was placed under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, in its election manifesto, said it would increase public investment to promote AYUSH and start integrated courses for Indian system of medicines and modern science.

Ayush is also a common Hindu given name, derived from Sanskrit, meaning “life.”