Conspiracy behind arrest of MLA Rai over Varanasi violence:

Congress today alleged that the Uttar Pradesh government had acted with an "aim to please" BJP as it saw a conspiracy behind the arrest of party MLA Ajay Rai and the invoking of NSA against him over an incident of violence in Varanasi earlier this month.
A three-member Congress team which visited Varanasi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Lok Sabha constituency, to find the truth behind the October 5 incident and the official action thereafter, charged that the violence had been a result of a tacit understanding between SP and BJP.
"With the aim to please the top leadership of BJP, Rai was framed and NSA was invoked against him at the instigation of senior SP leaders," a party spokesman alleged while quoting from the report submitted today to the AICC in-charge for state affairs, Madhusudan Mistry, and UPCC president Nirmal Khatri.

Congress legislature party leader Pradip Mathur and former ministers Sriprakash Jaiswal and Pradip Jain Aditya were part of the team which visited Varanasi on October 16 and met people and seers, the spokesman said.
Rai was arrested on October 6 for his alleged role in the violence and arson during a march by seers and other local leaders a day before against police action on protesters who were opposing a ban on the immersion of Ganesha idols in the Ganga.