Ex-BJP MLA Surendra Nath Singh, 17 others held for vandalism over Valentine's Day in Bhopal

Talking to reporters, Surendra Nath Singh said that hookah lounges were making the youths addicts and they have become 'breeding grounds of Love Jihad'

Seventeen persons, including a former BJP MLA, were arrested for allegedly indulging in vandalism in two separate incidents in the city on Sunday over the Valentine's Day, police said.

While one group vandalised a hookah lounge, another damaged a restaurant, they said.

A group of people with saffron towels wrapped around their necks, vandalised a hookah lounge located under Shyamla Hills police station limits. They raised slogans of 'Jai Shriram' during the act, a police official said.

Talking to reporters, former BJP MLA Surendra Nath Singh said that hookah lounges were making the youths addicts and they have become "breeding grounds of Love Jihad".

Shyamala Hills police station in-charge inspector Tarun Bhati said, "We arrested Surendra Nath Singh and six others for rioting and other charges in connection with this incident."

They were later produced in a local court, which remanded them in judicial custody, the official said.

In the second incident, Shiv Sena workers vandalised a restaurant located under the jurisdiction of Habibganj police station, the region's in-charge inspector Rakesh Shrivastava said.

"We have arrested 10 presons for rioting and other charges in this connection," he said.