By IANS,
Lucknow: The Congress’ Uttar Pradesh unit chief, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Friday said there seemed a “well-orchestrated game” behind the sudden arrest of two prominent Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leaders, including a legislator, for arson at her private house here in July 2009.
“The fact that Chief Minister Mayawati openly rewarded those who spearheaded the vandalism at my house and refused to pay any heed to our repeated demand for a CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) probe into the matter clearly reflected her patronage to the entire episode,” Joshi alleged.
“I have reason to believe that the sudden action against the to culprits has been prompted on account of certain extraneous reasons aimed at putting up a false pretence,” she said, alleging the arrest “could have been prompted only to impress the high court, where our petition for entrusting the case to CBI was pending”.
The state government had entrusted the case to the Crime Branch, which took no major action before arrested party legislator Jitendra Singh Babloo and Intezar Abdi Bobby, who holds the rank of a minister of state in his capacity as chairman of the State Sugarcane Institute (Ganna Sansthan).
Joshi said that their sudden arrest after nearly two years of the incident even as CID was yet to complete its investigation, was “something fishy”.
“What has further exposed the government’s game was the fact that two prominent ministers of the Mayawati government went to the jail to call on the arrested BSP leaders Friday afternoon,” Joshi said.