UP police defends self in ex-DSP arrest incident

Lucknow, Sep 26 (UNI) The Uttar Pradesh police has defended its action against former DSP and Congress RTI task force chairman Shailendra Singh on his arrest for taking the law in his hands.

State Additional Director General of Police (law and order) Brijlal said, ''None will be spared for taking law in hands and attacking Right To Information (RTI), which was a serious offence.'' ''UP police is committed to maintain the rule of law in the state and whoever tries to violate it would not be spared,'' he added.

Narrating the details of the incident, Mr Brijlal said the ex-DSP was arrested at around 0130 hrs and police had to break open the door of his flat, when his wife refused to cooperate with police and claiming that her husband was not inside the flat.

Refusing the allegation of the Congress that the arrest was politically motiviated to prevent the Congress leader to go to Delhi in connection with a case related to the Ambedkar Memorial on September 29, he said the action was taken purely on the merits of the case. He also contradicted that police ransacked shailendra's flat or manhandled him.

The ADG said police initiated action after a report was lodged by State Information Commission (SIC) secretary Sitaram Meena at around 1830 hrs regarding terrorising the employees and others in the commission by a strong mob of about 150 people led by Shailendra, Awadhesh Sachan, Dinesh Yadav and S Mariam Warsi.

Mr Brijlal said efforts were on to arrest the remaining three people, who had been named in the FIR and reiterated that no action would be taken against any innocent people.

Meanwhile, police also claimed that Lucknow district convenor of the same task force, Hansraj, was a criminal. He was a kingpin of a gang and used to steal things from big showrooms.

Presently, Hansraj was incarcerated in a jail.

The Congress has already announced to hold a state-wide district- level demonstration tomorrow to protest the arrest of Shailendra, the chairman of the RTI task force.

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