By IANS,
Lucknow : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists took to the streets in a Uttar Pradesh town Monday, alleging that the police manhandled their leader and arrested him on false charges, officials said.
BJP’s Shailendra Pratap Singh and two of his supporters was arrested Sunday evening a charge of power theft, the police said.
Agitated over the arrest, party activists blocked traffic at various routes in Pratapgarh, some 150 km from Lucknow, the police said.
“The activists also tried to damage buses and public vehicles, but could not do so due to timely intervention of the police,” Police Inspector N.K. Singh told IANS.
“Conniving with our political rivals, the police and the officials of the electricity department have falsely implicated Shailendra Pratap Singh,” BJP’s district president Doodnath Singh told IANS.
“The ongoing protest would intensify from tomorrow (Tuesday), if he is not released at the earliest,” he added.
District police chief Ajai Srivastava said: “The BJP leader abused the police officials and assaulted them while they were carrying out a joint inspection with officials of the electricity department to counter power theft near the Bhagwa Chungi locality.”
According to the police, the BJP leader and his uncle had unauthorised electricity connections at their residences in the locality.