Act of vengeance: FIR against Priyanka Gandhi’s aide and UP Congress chief Ajay Lallu for ‘forgery’

After failing to cope up with the popular perception building against the Yogi government over mishandling of the migrants’ crisis, the BJP government, in an act of vengeance, booked Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s secretary for ‘forgery’ on Tuesday.

The FIR against Ajay Lallu and Sandeep Singh was lodged by Lucknow’s Regional Transport Officer R P Dwivedi, who conducted an inquiry on the list of 1,000 buses provided by the Congress.

According to the claims made by the Yogi government, Dwivedi verified the bus numbers and found 100 vehicles registered in the name of auto-rickshaws or good carrier, truck and ambulance, etc, the FIR states.

The FIR charged Lallu, Singh, and others under Indian Penal Code sections related to cheating and forging documents.

The UP police alleged that a list of 1,000 buses on which the Congress planned to ferry migrant workers contained registration numbers of autorickshaws, cars, and trucks.

Also, records showed that many of the buses in the list did not have valid fitness certificates or insurance papers, the BJP government said.

However, the Congress rejected the BJP government’s claim on its list containing the numbers of other vehicles, challenging it to conduct a physical verification of the buses. Later, a state government spokesman said about 100 vehicles on the Congress list were not buses.

Of the 1000 buses, according to claims made by the UP government, 297 lacked either a fitness certificate or valid insurance papers.

As the war of words escalated, UP Congress Chief Ajay Kumar Lallu and other party workers reached the Agra border, where they argued with policemen and staged a dharna.

Lallu was seen being carried away from the protest site to a car, with four policemen holding his arms and legs. Another FIR was registered at Fatehpur Sikri police station against Lallu in Agra.

In a tweet in the evening, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi urged that the state government should at least let the buses found fit by it to enter the state. She said there were 879 such buses.

UP government has crossed the limit, she said, accusing it of creating hurdles in an effort to help migrant workers stranded due to the coronavirus lockdown.

She said if the Yogi Adityanath government wishes the Congress can put BJP banners on the buses, but they should be allowed to run.