AAP leader says FIRs against him are political vendetta

Ahmedabad, Aug 13: Arjun Rathwa, an Aam Aadmi Party leader from the tribal-dominated Chhota Udepur district of Gujarat, today claimed BJP and Congress leaders hare have filed several false police cases against him.

Rathwa had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election on an AAP ticket from Chhota Udepur. He said he has moved the High Court seeking to quash the FIRs.

The sub-divisional magistrate had also issued a notice to him asking why he should not be externed from seven districts under the Gujarat Police Act, he said.

"I am being victimised by Congress and BJP leaders for leading a campaign against corruption. FIRs against me are politically motivated and a form of vengeance," Rathwa said.

He said he was targeted especially after he carried out a sting operation on a school run by a trust of Congress leader and former Union MOS Naranbhai Rathwa.

He was arrested on the charge of demolishing freedom fighter Birsa Munda's statue on April 14, a day before it was to be inaugurated, after he led a campaign opposing the installation on the ground that it bore no resemblance to the late leader, Rathwa said.

"I was first detained, then arrested and kept in jail for seven days before granting bail. My political opponents are now trying to take away my job as a college professor on the ground that I was jailed for seven days," he said.

PTI