Chinmayanand, Sengar’s poster put up next to UP’s ‘name and shame’ hoardings in Lucknow, removed

Taking a cue from the Uttar Pradesh government's move to name and shame CAA protesters, billboards with pictures of two rape-accused Kuldip Singh Sengar and Chinmayanad were put up in the state capital.

Over 100 billboards were put by Samajwadi Party leader IP Singh at street crossing in the city late Thursday night. These were, however, taken down by police later on.

After putting up the billboards, Singh tweeted: "When the protesters have no privacy. And even after Supreme Court and High Court orders, the Yogi (Adityanath) government is not removing hoardings of anti-CAA protesters, then take this. At the Lohia crossing, I have released posters of some of the court-named criminals in public interest. Daughters beware of them."

The billboards of the two leaders were put near the billboards of protestors named for alleged Citizenship (Amendment) Act violence.

The billboards read: "They are the culprits of our daughters, stay beware of them".

These have pictures of former BJP MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar, accused by the court in Unnao gang-rape case, and Chinmayanand, accused of rape by a law student in the state.

Kuldeep Sengar has been sentenced to jail on December 20 last year for “remainder of his natural biological life” for raping a woman in 2017 in Unnao when she was a minor.

He was also convicted for culpable homicide not amounting to murder in the death of the Unnao rape victim’s father.

Chinmayanand was arrested in September last year after a 23-year-old woman accused him of sexual harassment and blackmail. She was a student of the Chinmayanand-controlled SS Law College in Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

He is out on bail in the case, which is being investigated by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed on the directions of the Supreme Court.

Speaking to IANS, the SP leader said: "After midnight, the entire police machinery went on to remove the billboards put up by me to name and shame the two leaders accused in the rape cases." He said that police action had exposed the intention of the Adityanath government.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court had questioned the state government's decision to put up the hoarding, displaying the pictures and addresses of people accused of indulging in violence and destruction of property during the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, as there was no law to back the action. The matter was referred to a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court.

The UP government had filed an appeal in the apex court to challenge the Allahabad High Court directive to pull down the roadside hoardings forthwith.