The Uttar Pradesh Police on Thursday arrested four men for allegedly writing “I love Mohammad” on the walls of several temples in Aligarh last week to implicate others in a land dispute case.

During a press conference, Senior Superintendent of Police Neeraj Kumar Jadaun said that the accused men were identified as Zeeshanth Singh, Akash Saraswat, Dilip Sharma and Abhishek Saraswat.

A search was on for another man named Rahul, who was also involved in the matter, he added.

“The investigation found that the graffiti was not a communal act but a deliberate attempt to implicate others due to a land-related rivalry,” India Today quoted Jadaun as saying.

The religious slogan was found written on temples in the Bhagwanpur and Bulkgarhi villages under the Lodha police station area on Saturday. Subsequently, a case was filed against eight persons – Mustaqeem, Gul Mohammad, Sulaiman, Sonu, Allahbaksh, Hameed and Yousuf.

However, the police found during the investigation that the slogans contained spelling mistakes, Jadaun said.

“This mistake was found in every slogan,” he said. “After examining all these facts and old case records, the police made this discovery [about the involvement of the four arrested].”

The senior superintendent of police said that the matter pertained to a land dispute from 2024, when the family of Gul Mohammad had a fight with the family of a man named Mukesh. The police registered a case and a chargesheet was filed against 15 persons, he added.

In September, another fight broke out between Mustaqeem and Zeeshanth Singh over a similar issue, Jadaun said. A case was registered against Mustaqeem and others based on Singh’s complaint, he added.

“These four [arrested] men intended to ensure a verdict against Mustaqeem in the case,” Jadaun said. He added that the men wrote the slogan on the temples to provoke immediate police action against those they had a dispute with.

Jadaun also said that the earlier case registered against the eight persons would be withdrawn.

Singh, Akash Saraswat, Dilip Sharma and Abhishek Saraswat have been arrested under Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita sections pertaining to promoting enmity and disturbing public peace

The development comes amid a row that began on September 4, when a group of Muslims held an “I love Muhammad” banner during an Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi procession in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur.

Hindu groups objected to the banner, claiming that a “new tradition” was being introduced at the procession.

The police claimed that government rules prohibit introducing new customs into religious processions. On September 9, the police filed cases against 24 persons, of whom 15 were unidentified, for allegedly introducing a new custom during the procession and disturbing communal harmony.

However, the police action sparked protests and processions with “I love Muhammad” banners in several districts of Uttar Pradesh and other states. Some of the protests led to clashes with the police, leading to cases being filed.

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