'I will surrender': BJP MP Nishikant Dubey after FIR filed over 'forcible' temple entry; 'booked for performing puja'

NEW DELHI: BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on Friday slammed the Jharkhand Police after he and five others, including Delhi BJP MP Manoj Tiwari, were booked for allegedly “forcibly” entering the sanctum sanctorum of the Baba Baidyanath temple in Deoghar, thereby “hurting religious sentiments .”

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“I have been booked for performing ‘puja.’ So far, 51 cases have been registered against me. Tomorrow, I will go straight from Deoghar airport to the police station to get arrested,” the Lok Sabha member from Godda wrote on X.


The FIR, lodged as per a complaint by temple priest Kartik Nath Thakur, is under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for “forcible entry" despite a restriction on VVIP entries during the holy month of "Shravan" in view of a large number of devotees.

"An FIR has been lodged against Nishikant Dubey, Manoj Tiwari, Kanshikanat Dubey, Sheshadri Dubey and others for entering the inner sanctorum of the temple, hurting religious tradition and sentiments and causing obstacles in government work by entering into a scuffle with police persons deployed for security reasons," an officer told news agency PTI.

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According to the complaint, the group’s actions created panic among devotees, and triggered a stampede-like situation.

About 55 lakh "kanwariyas" (devotees of Lord Shiva) have offered holy water at the Baba Baidyanath temple during the ongoing month-long "Shravan Mela" so far.