BY IANS,
Lucknow: Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal Saturday charged police in Lucknow with conniving with Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) workers in the attack on Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi’s house after her arrest for remarks against Chief Minister Mayawati and demanded a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe in the incident.
“A CBI inquiry is the only option through which the reality can come to the fore. Everyone knows BSP workers were behind the incident. Let the CBI inquiry take place… the (BSP) government will be unmasked,” he said at a press conference at the Congress office here.
Expressing concern over the “poor law and order” state in Uttar Pradesh, Jaiswal accused Mayawati of directing her party workers to indulge in vandalism and arson at Joshi’s residence.
“The attack on Joshi’s house was a state sponsored conspiracy by misusing police machinery. If arson and vandalism can take place in such a high-security zone, where Joshi resides, it becomes clear that the police also connived with the BSP goons,” he said.
“Violence took place right under the nose of police, who preferred to look the other way when Joshi’s house was being set on fire by BSP workers.
“The state government should apologise at the earliest for the BSP workers resorting to vandalism and arson (at Joshi’s residence),” the minister said.
Joshi was arrested after midnight Wednesday for a speech against Mayawati that the chief minister said was insulting to her as a woman and a Dalit. Joshi was charged under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and sent to judicial custody for 14 days. But she was bailed out Saturday.
A mob shouting pro-Mayawati slogans attacked and torched Joshi’s house in Lucknow around the time she was being arrested. The BSP denied its involvement in the arson.