A week after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath triggered a row by calling Lord Hanuman a Dalit, a group of Dalits offered prayers at a Hanuman temple here Tuesday, police said.
Police said they removed the group, led by Dalit Kranti Dal president Deepak Gambhir.
They had also put up a banner of 'Dalit Hanuman Mandir, Hanuman Chowk, Muzaffarnagar' in front of the temple, the officer said.
The group went into the temple, where one of them assumed the role of a priest and started offering prayers, a police officer said.
Last Tuesday, addressing a rally in Rajasthan's Alwar district, Adityanath had said, "Lord Hanuman was a forest dweller, deprived and a Dalit. Bajrang Bali worked to connect all Indian communities together, from north to south and east to west."