By IANS,
Lucknow : The Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh late Sunday invoked the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Varun Gandhi for his reported hate speeches and mob violence during his arrest Saturday.
Announcing the state administration’s decision at a late night press conference, Principal Secretary (Information) Vijay Shankar Pandey said: “In view of the highly provocative and communally charged speeches delivered by him at two places followed by organised violence by his supporters, the district magistrate of Pilibhit has clamped NSA on Varun Gandhi.”
Gandhi, whom the BJP has named as its candidate from Pilibhit, about 300 km from here, is in jail after he was Saturday sent to judicial custody.
His bail application was to be heard by a court in Pilibhit Monday, but the bail plea becomes infructuous as the NSA does not provide for bail for a full year.
He, however, can contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
“The local administration took serious cognisance of the speeches Varun Gandhi gave in Dalchand locality of Pilibhit town on March 7 and at Barkhera village on March 8,” Pandey said.
“Varun Gandhi compounded his unlawful acts by disturbing public order through his inflammatory speeches outside the local court March 28 as also by giving a free hand to his supporters to indulge in acts of aggression and violence while he was being taken from the court to Pilibhit prison,” he added.
A report by the Pilibhit district magistrate, submitted to the state government, says the young leader’s supporters attacked and beat up policemen, thereby creating an atmosphere of terror.
Pandey said: “The state government is committed to ensuring a peaceful, free and fair poll and if anyone – no matter how high and mighty – was found to be disrupting the peaceful process, he would be firmly dealt with.”
Varun Gandhi’s mother, former central minister Maneka Gandhi, is the sitting MP from Pilibhit.