UTTARAKHAND BJP MLAs FOIL UP COPS’ BID TO ARREST MLA

Two local BJP legislators and their supporters didn’t allow the Uttar Pradesh police who were in the city on Saturday to arrest the party’s Bijnor MLA in connection with his alleged role in Muzaffarnagar communal riots.

Sources say UP legislator Bhartendu Kumar has been staying in Dehradun to avert his arrest. The policemen who came to arrest him didn’t carry the arrest warrant and hence were sent back.

A team of UP police from Bijnor led by inspector Harpal Singh landed at the residence of Kumar’s mother near Mussoorie bypass area to arrest Kumar who had been staying there after charges of inciting communal violence in connection with Muzaffarnagar riots were slapped on him.

But, Singh and his team members were forced to leave emptyhanded by two local BJP MLAs Ganesh Joshi and Harbans Kapoor who reached the spot with their supporters.

Kapoor and Joshi asked inspector Singh to show the arrest warrant against Kumar. But, when the Bijnor policeman expressed his inability to produce the same, they asked him to leave. “Kumar has come to Dehradun to see his mother who lives here. He had also informed the Dehradun, Bijnor SSPs about this. How can they arrest him without any warrant? Inspector Harpal Singh came with five-six other policemen and showed a copy of the FIR to us but it was unreliable as FIRs can be fake,” said Ganesh Joshi. Dehradun SP city Jagdish Chandra said that he was not in the know of the details. He, however, said that if the UP police did not carry the required papers, they could not arrest anyone from Dehradun.

Sources said the UP police were now trying obtain arrest warrants from Bijnore.