PM Modi's brother Prahlad stages dharna at Lucknow airport

Lucknow, Feb 03: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's brother Prahlad Modi staged a dharna at the Lucknow airport on Wednesday, alleging that police did not let his supporters reach there and took them into custody.

Police, however, have denied the charge.

According to Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport''s Additional General Manager (Operations) Bhupendra Singh, Prahlad Modi arrived at Lucknow by an Indigo flight around 4 pm.

He sat on a dharna on the airport premises as he was unhappy over police stopping his supporters from reaching there, Singh said, adding that Prahlad Modi left after an hour and a half.

Prahlad Modi told reports at the airport that he had come to Uttar Pradesh to take part in some social programmes in Sultanpur, Jaunpur and Pratapgarh.

"After reaching here, I came to know that the workers who were coming to receive me were held by the Lucknow police and made to sit in a police station. Efforts are on to lodge cases against them," he claimed.

Prahlad Modi claimed some police officers told him that there is "an order to this effect from the Prime Minister''s Office".

"I felt that it would not be right if my children (workers) are in jail and I am free. Either let them go or I am sitting on a strike at the airport. Some police officers reached here and said there is an order to this effect from the Prime Minister''s Office and I demand to see the copy of the order," Modi said.

"Goondagardi will neither help the government here nor the Prime Minister''s office," he added.

Prahlad Modi said if police did not give him the copy of the order, he would approach the Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, Sarojini Nagar police station SHO Mahendra Singh said he has no information about the Modi's supporters.

No one has been taken into custody in my area, Singh said, adding that some reports of this kind have, however, had come from Sultanpur district but he had no information about it.

When asked if he knew where Prahlad Modi went after leaving the airport, Singh said, "I have no such information and even if we had, it would have been kept secret."

Sultanpur SP Arvind Chaturvedi has also denied the charge.

However, a youth was arrested for allegedly collecting money in the name of the prime minister''s brother in Sultanpur.

The Sultanpur police had received information from the Prime Minister''s Office that one Jitendra Tiwari, also known as Jitu, was involved in forgery in the name of the PM''s brother, SHO (City) Bhupendra Singh had said.

Acting on the input, Tiwari was arrested from near Vikas Bhavan on Monday, he had said, adding that the accused's car had a poster of a programme of the prime minister''s brother in Madhavpur on February 4.

BJP''s Sultanpur president R A Verma had said a youth had come to him but he did not entertain him.