VHP leader Praveen Togadia detained at Jammu airport

To avoid any trouble in the sensitive border Jammu and Kashmir, the state police today detained the Vishwa Hindu Parishad international president Praveen Togadia at Jammu airport here and later made him to return to Delhi in a connecting flight coming from Valley.

The police action came as soon as the VHP leader came out of the Jet Airlines flight which arrived here from Delhi this morning. As Togadia started moving towards the arrival lounge along with other passengers, he was stopped by a police party headed by Superintendent of Police, Airport, Ashok Sharma, who told him that he has been denied permission by the administration from entering the state.

The VHP leader was made to stay at the airport by police who persuaded him to return to Delhi in a connecting flight coming from Valley in the afternoon. Later, District Magistrate, Jammu, Sanjeev Verma, also visited the airport and asked him to return as his entry into the state was bound to cause tension in the state.

''He (Togadia) returned to Delhi in a flight without any resistance,'' said Verma.

Significantly, Togadia who had arrived here to attend functions organized by VHP at different places in Jammu district, was already booked under section 153 A of the Ranbir Penal Code for delivering a hate speech leading to communal clashes between Hindus and Muslims in border Rajouri town in March 2012.

Earlier, in the morning, police men in strength were deployed outside the Jammu Airport and prohibitory orders imposed by district administration under section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) banning assembly of more than four people.

The state VHP president Dr Rama Kant Dubey, who along with nearly two dozen workers had been waiting outside the airport to receive Togadia, criticized the state government for detaining their visiting leader who had arrived here to attend religious functions being organized at different places. Accusing government of allowing free movement to separatists anywhere the state and the country, Dubey warned of protests in Jammu in case Togadia was not allowed to come to the state.

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