Swami Dineshanand Bharti, a controversial ascetic, was arrested by Roorkee police on Thursday in connection with a land fraud case. Bharti, whose video claiming that Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami is of Nepali origin had been circulating widely on social media, is accused of defrauding a resident of Sonipat, Haryana, of Rs 9 lakh.
The police’s preliminary investigation revealed that Bharti operates a gang involved in land-grabbing activities. Several other cases have been registered against him at different police stations.
Despite the arrest being tied to a land fraud case, discussions in the city are centered around the timing of Bharti’s arrest. Given that he had questioned CM Dhami’s ethnic origins, there is speculation that his arrest was carried out under the pretext of an old case registered in June last year.
Swami Bharti, who runs the “Shankar Math” ashram in Toda Kalyanpur village near Roorkee, was arrested earlier in April 2022 for delivering a hate speech at the Dharma Sansad held in Haridwar in December 2021.
