Uttar Pradesh Congress president Ajay Kumar Lallu and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s secretary were booked by police Tuesday after the state government said a list of 1,000 buses on which the party 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, accusing the opposition party of playing with the lives of workers.
The FIR against Lallu and Sandeep Singh, who is Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s personal secretary, capped a day during which the party traded charges with the Yogi Adityanath government and held a protest at the Rajasthan-UP border.
The FIR charged Lallu, Singh and “others” under Indian Penal Code sections related to cheating and forging documents.
The Congress rejected the UP government 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 buses, 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. A UP Congress spokesperson said he was taken to a police station in Agra.
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