New Delhi: Alleged members of the Hindu Sena have defaced the signage outside the India Islamic Cultural Centre police said, adding that they have registered a First Information Report on their own initiative.

Deputy Commissioner of police (New Delhi) Eish Singhal said the FIR was registered at the Tughlaq Road police station against unknown persons under Section 3 of the Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act, 2007.

“A police team spotted the defaced signage while patrolling the neighborhood on Sunday (November 1) morning. There is no CCTV camera installed around the board. The name of a right-wing organization is mentioned on the objectionable poster pasted on the signage. We will probe the involvement of its members,” said the officer.

Earlier in the day, the Hindu Sena released a statement owning up the responsibility for the act. Photographs of the defaced board went viral on social media on November 1.

Hindu Sena chief Vishnu Gupta November 1 said that he learnt that some members of their organization had defaced the signage during a protest at the India Islamic Cultural Centre earlier in the day.

“Muslims in cities like Bhopal and Mumbai have been protesting against the France government’s response to Islamic terrorism. This has been happening despite our Prime Minister and our people extending support to France at this hour. We believe that members of the IICC should have come out with a statement condemning the protests in India. Since they did not, it is clear that they too were supporting the protest,” he said.

Gupta also said their workers expressed their anger against the terror attacks in France by putting posters at the India Islamic Centre.

The provocation was an attack on October 29 in a church in the southern French city of Nice. A Muslim youth stabbed to death three people inside the Notre-Dame Basilica that French President Emmanuel Macron described as an “Islamist terrorist attack.”

A few weeks ago, an assailant decapitated a French middle school teacher who showed caricatures of Prophet Muhammed for a class on free speech.

The Islamic Centre in the Lodhi Road area is a hub of cultural activities, including plays and concerts.

This is not the first time the Hindu Sena has defaced road signs in the national capital.

In June this year, its workers defaced a signboard outside the Chinese embassy against the killing of 20 Indian soldiers in clashes with the Chinese troops in Ladak Galwan Valley. Last year, the Babar Road signboard was blackened by the Hindu Sena workers who demanded change in the road’s name.

In May 2015, the Hindu group plastered with posters on signboards of Akbar Road and Feroz Shah Road.

Referring to the defacement, SM Khan, vice president of IICC, said the incident was unfortunate. “It was an unfortunate incident and we brought it to the notice of local authorities. Our board will meet to decide on the course of legal action. IICC is a place which believes in inter-faith dialogue, deliberation and promotes national integrity. To say we support any act of terror is ridiculous.”

Source: hindustantimes.com