Leader who threatened to ‘chop Modi’ Granted bail
Yahoo India – 1 hour 36 minutes ago
NEW DELHI: The Congress candidate from Saharanpur Imran Masood, who was booked for a hate speech against the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, was on Wednesday granted bail.
Masood, 40, was arrested on the basis of a video clipping that went viral on the web. The clipping showed threatening to "chop BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi to pieces", igniting a new political controversy prior to next month's general election.
He is now facing criminal charges for his hate speech, though he maintains that he never threatened to kill Modi, but only to teach him a lesson.
A First Information Report (FIR) accuses him of violating the Model Code of Conduct, but it is not clear when and where the comments were made. Local police said they received the video CD on Thursday.
Masood claims he spoke those words eight months ago, when he was with the Samajwadi Party. (With inputs from agencies)