FIR against former minister under SC/ST Act

Lucknow, Aug 20 (UNI) An FIR has been lodged against former Uttar Pradesh minister Rajendra Singh Rana under the SC/ST Act for allegedly manhandling a person during the MLC elections in 2004.

The State Home department said here that the FIR was lodged under the 'special FIR drive' launched by the Mayawati government to register cases which were delibrately not lodged during the previous Mulayam Singh Yadav government.

Citing SSP (Saharanpur) Vijay Garg, the Home department said one Rajpal of Deoband has charged the minister of manhandling him and snatching his money in the year 2004 during the MLC elections.

''While the SSP has confirmed manhandling, the snatching of money from the victim could not be confirmed,'' a Home department spokesperson said.

Rana had switched loyalties to join the Samajwadi Party when Ms Mayawati had resigned as the CM in August, 2002. On February 14 this year, the Supreme Court had disqualified a total of 13 MLAs, including Rana under the Anti-Defection Law.

Over 7000 FIRs were lodged in Uttar Pradesh in a month's time during the special FIR drive.

Recently, Chief Minister Mayawati had announced setting of special counters to lodge FIRs in cases which were not lodged during the previous Mulayam Singh Yadav government.

In a month's time (between June 22 and July 22), 7057 FIRs were registered in the various districts. Of these, while 6369 cases were investigated, 688 FIRs were dismissed.

Final report was presented in 607 cases and 1236 charge sheets were filed. ''As of now, 4526 cases are under investigation.

As per the figures provided by the state police, there are a total of 22381 named accused in the FIRs registered in one month even as 3923 cases were found to be false.

The special FIR drive will continue till August 22.

UNI