Mumbai: Nine members of a Vasai housing society who recently signed a resolution banning the sale of a flat to a Muslim family were arrested by the Manickpur police on Monday.An FIR had been registered on Saturday against 11 members, including the secretary and treasurer of the Happy Jivan Housing Society in Sai Nagar, Vasai (W), under Section 295 (A) of the Indian Penal Code which stands for “deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.”Nine society members, including two women, were arrested. One member has two flats and had signed for both of these. Another member who signed the letter is away on work and will be arrested on his return, police said.They were later produced before Vasai court and released on bail. The members had signed on the society letterhead objecting to Kantaben Patel (55) selling her first-floor flat to a Muslim glass trader, Vikarahmed Khan.TOI had on September 17 exclusively reported how the 11 flat owners of the building comprising 16 flats and nine shops had urged the Patels not to sell the flat to a Muslim as that would “spoil the atmosphere.” They had asked the Patels to sell the flat to “someone from their own community”.The 35-year-old building has nine Gujarati families in all, and the Patels’ four first-floor neighbours are all Gujarati vegetarians.Two Muslim families were away when the society meeting in which the resolution was passed took place. One Maharashtrian and one Punjabi family had also not signed on the resolution.Owners of the nine shops in the building were not aware about the September 4 meeting. While the decision was conveyed to the Patels the next day, the shop-owners learnt about it when TOI reported on the matter.Following a complaint lodged by Khan, the Manickpur police had on Sunday recorded the statements of the society members.Khan had agreed to buy the 710 sq ft flat for Rs 47.75 lakh. He had paid a token of Rs one lakh by cheque to the Patels and wanted a no-objection certificate from the society to apply for a bank loan.On Sunday the society members agreed to give the NOC and apologised to Khan and the community.Jignesh Patel, son of Kantaben, told TOI that it was sad that the matter had to be settled by a police complaint and arrests. He said he had been asking the society for an NOC for over a month but it was not given.Khan termed the whole incident as unfortunate. “I have nothing against the building residents,” he said.The society is likely to give its NOC on Tuesday. The members are also likely to give a written apology to Khan and other community leaders for hurting religious sentiments.