BJP MLA stops cops from arresting criminal at Vajpayee’s last rites yatra

The Bharatiya Janata Party members during the procession carrying Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s ashes in Lucknow on Thursday attacked a sub-inspector of Lucknow University police station because he wanted to catch an criminal.

Abhay Kumar Singh was informed that Prashant Mishra, who had hit the LU Vice Chancellor SP Singh and other senior members on the campus in July, was there in the procession. A warrant was issued against him by a local court on August 14. But as Singh and two constables caught Mishra and asked him to accompany them to the police station, BJP MLA of Bakshi Ka Talab, Avinash Trivedi, and his supporters suddenly attacked the police officer and his team. The police retreated in disarray.

While this information was suppressed by the BJP and the police, a purported video of the incident went viral on social media on Friday, showing the lawmaker and his henchmen attacking the police force as Mishra continued the journey, which was organised to pay tribute to the former prime minister.

“We know that Singh would be punished under one or the other pretext if we try to take up the case further. This is the reason that we don’t want a controversy around this episode. Even our senior officers have been asking Singh why he didn’t wait for the completion of the ashes immersion programme to arrest the absconder,: said a police officer posted in the state headquarters of the department.

Harendra Kumar, additional SP of trans-Gomti, said, “We are investigating the issue to take further action.”

It was only on Tuesday that Anand Shahi, an inspector of Hazratganj police station, was withdrawn from active duty and attached to police line because he had tried to disperse the unruly members of Bharatiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha when they had blocked the road and were burning the effigy of Navjot Singh Sidhu, minister of tourism and cultural affairs in the Punjab government, for embracing Pakistan army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa during Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s swearing in ceremony in Islamabad. A sub-inspector was left injured in the clash.