Salman Khurshid’s Nainital home shot at, portion set on fire

By Sonali Mishra & Pramod Dalakoti
NAINITAL/ALMORA: The house of Congress leader and former Union minister Salman Khurshid, located in Satkhol area in Ramgarh block of Nainital district, was vandalised on Monday afternoon.
Around two dozen people, who onlookers said belonged to right-wing outfit Bajrang Dal, staged a demonstration in front of the house, burnt Khurshid's effigy before setting a portion of the residence on fire.
An FIR has been registered against around 20 people, "who are yet to be identified", police said. Khurshid has been in the eye of a storm over parallels drawn between ‘Hindutva’ and Islamic terrorist outfits in his recent book 'Sunrise Over Ayodhya: Nationhood in Our Times'.
Soon after the incident, in a Facebook post, the former minister of external affairs, sharing pictures and videos of charred doors and other parts of his house, wrote, “I hoped to open these doors to my friends who have left this calling card. Am I still wrong to say this cannot be Hinduism?”
He further said, “So such is debate now. Shame is too ineffective a word. Besides, I still hope that we can reason together one day and agree to disagree if not more.”
Fellow Congress leader Shashi Tharoor took to Twitter to condemn the incident, saying “this is disgraceful”. “The mounting levels of intolerance in our politics should be denounced by those in power,” he tweeted.
At the time of the incident, the caretaker of the house, Sundar Ram, and his family were present. Ram said that around 1 pm, a mob converged in front of the house. “We tried to reason with them but they started pouring diesel on the front door and set it on fire. One of them whipped out a pistol and pointed it at my daughter-in-law. They then opened fire at the window and broke the window panes. They must have fired around six to seven rounds,” Ram said. The caretaker added that he recognised two people in the mob, one of whom has been named in the FIR.
Police reached the spot after Ram informed them. DIG Kumaon Nilesh Bharane told TOI, “Apart from one accused, identified as Rakesh Kapil, a resident of Mouna village, 20 others, yet to be identified, have been booked. For now, police cover has been provided at the house.”
The FIR has been lodged under sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 456 (punishment for lurking house-trespass or house-breaking by night),552 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint) and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the IPC.