Ex-BJP MLA Among 17 Arrested For Vandalising Restaurant on Valentine’s Day in Bhopal

Locals identified a group of people with saffron towels wrapped around their necks, who vandalised a hookah lounge located under Shyamla Hills police station limits.

New Delhi: As many as 17 people, including a former BJP MLA, were this Sunday arrested for vandalism in two separate cases where a hookah lounge and a restaurant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, were rampaged on claims that they were breeding grounds of “love jihad”. It was a busy day for restaurants and bars yesterday as many people were eating out on the occasion of Valentine’s Day.

Locals identified a group of people with saffron towels wrapped around their necks, who vandalised a hookah lounge located under Shyamla Hills police station limits. They raised slogans of ‘Jai Shriram’ during the act, a police official said.

Talking to reporters, former BJP MLA Surendra Nath Singh said that hookah lounges were making the youths addicts and they have become “breeding grounds of Love Jihad”.

Shyamala Hills police station in-charge inspector Tarun Bhati said, “We arrested Surendra Nath Singh and six others for rioting and other charges in connection with this incident. They were later produced in a local court, which remanded them in judicial custody, the official said.

In yet another incident, Shiv Sena workers vandalised a restaurant located under the jurisdiction of Habibganj police station, the region’s in-charge inspector Rakesh Shrivastava said. “We have arrested 10 persons for rioting and other charges in this connection,” he said.