Congress candidate Masood arrested for threatening Modi (Lead)

Lucknow, March 29 (IANS) Imran Masood, Congress candidate from Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur constituency, was arrested early Saturday for his hate speech against BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, police said.

Officials said a first information report (FIR) was lodged in Saharanpur, soon after clips of Masood's hate speech were telecast on TV channels.

Senior Superintendent of Police Manoj Kumar led the team that arrested Masood, who is the nephew of jailed Congress leader Rashid Masood.

Imran Masood's troubles began when his speech, threatening "to chop Modi into pieces" and that 42 percent of the population in Uttar Pradesh was Muslim as compared to the four percent in Gujarat, was caught on tape.

Both the state government and the Election Commission late Friday hinted at stern action against the leader.

A CD of the speech was submitted to the poll panel by state BJP president Laxmikant Bajpayi.

The poll panel ordered to book him under the Representation of the People Act.

The Congress has distanced itself from the comment and has sought an explanation from him.

Sources close to Imran Masood, however, said that this clip was six months old and had been deliberately leaked now to polarize the electorate ahead of the Lok Sabha election.

The Congress candidate has said that he did not use "the type of language", adding Modi was the "biggest khalnayak (villain)" in the country.