For the first time in a long while, two Hindu men have been charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and a Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita section for planting a bomb inside the Mecca Mosque in Ardhamsla village in Maharashtra’s Beed district.
The blast occurred in the early hours of March 30, and it came just a day before Eid-ul-Fitr, but no casualties were reported, although the mosque suffered major damage. The accused, Vijay Rama Gavhane and Shriram Ashok Sagade, both 22-year-old residents of Ardhamsla, were arrested within hours, and the police said they were employed in well-digging work, which involves the use of explosives like gelatin sticks.
Police said the gelatin sticks were planted inside the mosque around 2 am, and the explosion damaged the ceiling fans, doors, windows, religious books, flooring, and walls. SP Navneet Kanwat said the nature of the attack suggested a deliberate attempt to provoke communal unrest, and he confirmed that the case warranted the strictest legal provisions under UAPA and BNS.
The men have been booked under UAPA Sections 15 (terrorist act), 16 (punishment for terrorist act), and 18 (conspiracy), and Section 113 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita has also been applied. Initially, the case had been registered under BNS Sections 298 (injuring or defiling a place of worship), 299 (outraging religious feelings), and 196 (promoting enmity between groups), but officials said those charges were later expanded to reflect the seriousness of the incident.
This is the first time that Beed Police have used UAPA against members of the Hindu community, and police said the intent behind the act made the charges necessary. The arrests followed an altercation during the urus of Sayyad Badshah on the evening of March 29, and although the procession included all communities, a dispute broke out between the accused and others, which escalated later.
Police said the two men had verbally abused members of a particular community, and they reportedly threatened to demolish the mosque, but the situation was defused by locals at the time. That night, they allegedly stayed at a nearby farm and returned to the mosque after midnight, and locals later spotted them fleeing after the blast, which helped police identify and apprehend them.
According to the complainant, Rashed Ali Hussain Sayyad, residents heard a loud explosion around 2:30 am, and they rushed to the mosque and found extensive damage. Sayyad said Gavhane, who lives next door to the mosque, had previously been booked for illegal possession of weapons, and the caretaker confirmed that both men had issued threats.