SP leader booked over misleading comments on COVID-19

Senior Samajwadi Party leader and former MP Ramakant Yadav has been booked for giving misleading statements pertaining to COVID-19, police said on Saturday.

"The government is spreading rumours on coronavirus to divert attention from NRC, CAA, unemployment and price rise, so that people do not protest against the government," Yadav said at the party office here on Friday.

He also claimed that coronavirus can infect people in other parts of the world, not India.

"If there is any coronavirus patient, bring him to me. I will hug him, and get his medical treatment done," Yadav had said.

DIG range Azamgarh, Subhash Chandra Dubey on Saturday said, "On one hand, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is very serious vis-a-vis the outbreak of COVID-19, and utmost precautions are being taken, the statement made by Ramakant Yadav is misleading."