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He has been been convicted under certain sections of stringent UAPA.
A special court in Lucknow on Monday awarded death sentence to a man named Ahmad Murtaza Abbasi for attacking policemen at the Gorakhnath temple with a machete in UP’s Gorakhpur in April last year.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath is the chief priest of the temple.
On April 4, Murtza – a mechanical engineer by profession – attacked two constables and tried to snatch their rifles with an “intention to open discriminate firing” at pilgrims at the main temple gate.
He was overpowered and arrested by the police.
During the hearing, 27 eyewitnesses were presented before the court. In his argument, the accused told the court that he was mentally unstable.
After his arrest, he reportedly told the police that he decided to take revenge for atrocities on Muslims, and called the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens “wrong”.
Based on the complaint of a sub-inspector survivor, a case was registered by the police. However, the case was handed over to UP Anti-Terror Squad (ATS).
Murtza was booked under sections 186 (punishment for obstructing public servant from discharging duties), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion), 307 (attempt to murder), 332 (causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 333 (causing grievous hurt to deter public servant), 353 (assault on public servant), and 394 (attempt of robbery) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 16, 18, 20, and 40 of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
In its supplementary chargesheet, the ATS also charged him with waging war against the country.
The accused, Abbasi, is said to have graduated from the prestigious IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), Bombay in 2015. He is the only son and his father, Munir, is a legal advisor, said the police.
Gorakhnath temple emerged as a political power centre after its head mahant Yogi Adityanath became the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister in 2017. The temple has a large number of followers across the country and every day a huge number of people visit the temple to offer prayers.
