New Delhi: A self-proclaimed Hindu nationalist is on a 200-km walk from his house in Uttar Pradesh to the Supreme Court in New Delhi to “reclaim his honour” after having been wrongly labelled as having converted to Islam by the Uttar Pradesh police.The Uttar Pradesh police’s anti-terrorism squad had visited Praveen Kumar’s house in Saharanpur on June 23, looking for an ‘Abdul Samad’. Samad’s name, along with Kumar’s photo and contact details were on an alleged leaked list of people who had converted to Islam.This leak was related to an alleged conversion racket, with the accused named were the chairpersons of Islamic Da’wah Centre (IDC), Mufti Kazi Jahangir Qasmi and Mohammed Umar Gautam. It was claimed by police that their names up came during investigation into the alleged ‘assassination’ plot against head priest of Dasna Devi temple, Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati.The Wire has reported in the past that Narsinghanand had repeatedly made genocidal calls against Muslims in the run up to the Delhi riots of February 2020, which resulted in the deaths of more than 50 people.Narsinghanand had also supported one of his followers who thrashed a 14-year-old Muslim boy for entering the Dasna Devi temple to drink water.While Praveen Kumar, a PhD scholar who works in a sugarcane factory, has apparently been cleared by police, villagers in Shitla Kheda have apparently been unforgiving. Assuming that he had converted to Islam, they have been socially boycotting him. On the door of his house, someone has written the words, ‘Go to Pakistan’.“I want the country to know what I am going through,” Kumar told Times of India.Last Tuesday, he left on the 200-kilometre journey by foot on what he said was the ‘Samajit Nyay Yatra’ or Social Justice March. “I want to get rid of this stigma I have been unfairly burdened with. Only the Supreme Court can help me,” said Kumar, who has written books about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath.Since he left home, Kumar has covered over 30 kilometres each day. His travels have been monitored by Uttar Pradesh police who have been ‘counselling’ him in an attempt to convince him to return.On July 30, he was greeted by a delegation of policemen at his relative’s house in Dadri, where he was making an overnight pit stop.“A police team from Saharanpur had tracked my phone’s GPS location. They found me and, at first, tried to make me give up on my march. When I didn’t listen, they started pressuring me. They would have detained me and forced me to go back,” Kumar told TOI.He managed to escape amidst the ruckus created by the presence of the police but had to leave all his belongings behind.In a response to the newspaper, Sahranpur Special Superintendent of Police, S Chanappa said, “We’ve been trying to counsel him but we are not forcing him”.Kumar is not in a mood to relent. “What came of that one visit (by police)? (When) I was labelled a terrorist. They didn’t help then,” he said.
