An FIR was registered by the Uttar Pradesh Police against Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's personal secretary Sandeep Singh and UP Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu in Hazratganj Police station of Lucknow on Tuesday, 19 May alleging fraud and forgery for furnishing wrong details about the buses arranged by the Congress to carry migrant workers to their destination.
Lallu was granted interim bail till 16 July by a court in Agra.
The state government had stated earlier in the day that registration numbers of close to 200 out of the 1074 buses arranged by the party were found to be of scooters, goods carriers and ambulances.
“As per MHA guidelines you need to apply for permission for inter-state bus movement after which pass is issued and permission is granted. They hadn't applied and didn't have pass. So they were not allowed to enter. He (Lallu) hasn't been arrested,” Ravi Kumar, SP rural (west), Agra, told ANI.
The issue of UP government allegedly not allowing the buses arranged by the party for migrant labourers to enter the state has led to a tug of war between the Yogi government and Priyanka Gandhi since the past few days, with a marathon exchange of letters taking place in the past 24 hours.
Priyanka Gandhi took to Twitter on Tuesday to say that at least the 879 buses whose registration numbers have been found to be wrong must be allowed to enter the state and that the correct details of the remaining buses will be submitted to the authorities tomorrow.
Earlier, Lallu, along with several Congress workers staged a protest staged a sit-in protest at Agra(UP)-Rajasthan border in Uncha Nangla after the buses arranged to bring back migrant workers from Rajasthan to UP were allegedly not allowed to enter UP.
The protesters were later removed from the spot.
Yogi Govt Trains Guns at Priyanka over ‘Fraudulent’ Details
Uttar Pradesh Minister and government spokesman Siddhartha Nath Singh told reporters that the Congress deserved condemnation for this kind of 'fraud and forgery'.
“Congress president Sonia Gandhi should respond to the actions of her children, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi. It is unforgivable that a political party should resort to this kind of petty politics in the name of migrant workers. The Congress owes an apology to the nation.”Siddharth Nath Singh, UP Minister
The minister further said that it was because of this that the Uttar Pradesh government had sought details of the vehicles when the Congress sought permission to provide buses to carry the migrants.
Lallu had earlier said that some numbers may have been wrongly written but the party is committed to provide 1,000 buses.
The Yogi Adityanath government had asked the Congress to deploy 500 buses at Kaushambhi bus station in Ghaziabad and 500 buses at Gautam Buddha Nagar near Expo Mart ground by noon to ferry the migrant workers.
The letter to this effect was sent by Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Avanish Awasthi to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s personal secretary. The letter said that directives have been sent to the concerned district magistrates who will check the vehicle fitness, driving licences of drivers and other documents before deploying them for migrant workers.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)