Varun Bahar, a Bhojpuri and Hindi singer from Gonda in UP, who was in the news recently for his controversial song with the line, ‘Jo na bole Jai Shri Ram, unko bhej do kabristan’ (‘Whoever does not chant Jai Shri Ram send them to the graveyard’) has been arrested by the UP police, sources told The Quint.

“He was sleeping on his home’s terrace in UP’s Manakpur village when police came and picked him up at 3:00 am on 26 July,” Varun Bahar’s associate, MRK Sandeep, told The Quint.

Lucknow crime branch police officials from the social media monitoring cell arrested Bahar as well as the producer of the music label, Rajesh Kumar Verma, and song writers Santosh Yadav and Mukesh Pandey under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language) and 298 (deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person) of the IPC.