Uttar Pradesh police claim video of Nepali youth getting tonsured, forced to chant Jai Shri Ram was 'staged', six arrested

Uttar Pradesh police have claimed that the video showing tonsuring of a Nepali youth and forcing him to raise slogans against Nepal PM K P Sharma Oli in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi was 'staged'.

The UP police in Varanasi said on its official twitter handle that the man shown in the video was an 'Indian citizen'. "He was born in Varanasi and members of his family are in government service," the police said. Six people have so far been arrested in this connection.

Read: Nepal PM K P Sharma Oli's remarks on Ayodhaya invites sharp criticism

Sources said that the youth, who was tonsured and who raised the slogan' Jai Shri Ram', was paid Rs 1,000 by the members of the Shiv Sena to stage the act.

The alleged incident happened last week and the video of the act had gone viral on social networking sites.

Earlier the police had said that the activists of Vishwa Hindu Sena (VHS), a saffron outfit, were behind the incident. The activists had also written 'Jai Shri Ram' on the scalp of the youth and made him raise slogans against Oli. An FIR had been lodged against VHS convener Arun Pathak in this connection.

Interestingly, Pathak had also shared the video on his Facebook profile and warned that Nepalese living in the country must raise their voice against Oli else they should also meet the same fate.

He had said that the act was in protest against Oli's remarks claiming that the 'real' Ayodhya lay in Nepal.

(The story has been updated to incorporate Varanasi police’s investigation and the subsequent arrest. The earlier version of the story carried the headline ‘UP: Nepali youth tonsured, forced to chant Jai Shri Ram')