The hate speech case against Maurya was filed in 2014 when he was in the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)

Lucknow: Swami Prasad Maurya, who resigned as minister in the Yogi Adityanath’s cabinet in Uttar Pradesh, Wednesday laughed off the arrest warrant against him.

“All this and much more will happen now”, he said.

Maurya was responding to the media after the arrest warrant was issued against him in a 7 year old case of alleged hate speech.

The arrest warrant against Maurya was issued barely a day after he resigned from the Adityanath cabinet and also made it clear that he may soon also leave the BJP.

The warrant was issued by Sultanpur MP-MLA court which also asked Maurya to appear in the court today.

The former minister, a strong OBC leader, did not turn up in the court today following which the court asked him to appear on January 24, 2022.

The hate speech case against Maurya was filed in 2014 when he was in the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

“Goddess Gauri or Lord Ganesha should not be worshipped during weddings. It is a conspiracy by upper caste-dominated system to mislead and enslave Dalits and backward castes,” Maurya had reportedly said at a gathering.

An earlier warrant for his arrest was put on hold by the Allahabad High Court in 2016. Since then there have been many hearings in the case.