Congress candidate from Saharanpur Imran Masood after his arrest
Imran Masood, the Congress party's candidate from Saharanpur who was
arrested on Saturday for threatening "to chop
Narendra Modi" into pieces, was today granted bail by a local court.
Imran's remarks had created a furore, and were frowned upon by his party vice-president
Rahul Gandhi. He used an election rally in Saharanpur on the day Imran was arrested to express his disapproval of the hate-speech. (
Read: Congress disapproves of Imran Masood's remarks)
"A few months ago, our candidate used harsh words for the opposition candidate. That's not our tradition. No matter what the Opposition says about us, we always respond respectfully, said Mr Gandhi. (
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"We want to engage in politics of love. We'll defeat anger with love," he added.
Imran is the nephew of former union minister Rashid Masood, who had earned infamy last year after becoming the first parliamentarian to lose his membership of the Rajya Sabha because of his conviction in a corruption case.
A criminal case was registered against Imran on March 28 after a video of him threatening to "chop Modi to pieces" went viral on the Web. Clarifying his comments, he told NDTV, "I meant that I would teach him a lesson."
An FIR or First Information Report accused Imran, 40, of violating the election code of conduct, but it was not clear when and where the comments were made.
The police say they had received the video CD a day before he was arrested. Imran claims he spoke those words eight months ago, when he was with the Samajwadi Party.
In the CD, Imran says, "
I am a man of the street, ready to give my life for my people. I am neither afraid of death or of killing. He thinks this is Gujarat. There are only 4% Muslims in Gujarat. There are 42% Muslims here."
The BJP's Arun Jaitley had lashed out at the remarks, arguing that the comments reflect a mindset that believes "abusing Modi is an expression of aggressive secularism."