UPCC chief remanded in 14-day judicial custody

UPCC president Ajay Kumar Lallu, arrested from Agra on Wednesday evening by Lucknow police on charges of cheating and forgery, has been remand in judicial custody for 14 days.

Brought to the state capital late Wednesday night, Lallu was first taken for a medical examination to a hospital and was later produced before a magisterial court, which remanded him in judicial custody, Congress spokesman Anshu Awasthi said.

After being brought here last night, Lallu was first kept in a temporary jail and on receipt of the report on Thursday that he was negative for coronavirus infection, was shifted to the Lucknow jail, said Awasthi.

Earlier on Wednesday, Lallu was granted bail by an Agra court and released before being rearrested by a team of Lucknow police again in a second case filed here in connection with the Congress' standoff with the UP government over the arrangement of buses for migrant workers.

Lallu was first arrested in Agra on Tuesday for sitting on a dharna to protest against the alleged denial of permission by the UP government to allow buses arranged for migrants by the Congress to enter the state.

On Tuesday night another FIR against Lallu and Sandeep Singh, who is Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's personal secretary, and others was lodged at the Hazratganj police station of Lucknow under various Indian Penal Code sections related to cheating and forgery.

Condemning the arrest of UPCC president, Awasthi said it is most unfortunate that the UP government is sending to jails those very people who are extending it helping hands in this hour of crisis.

First the buses were kept in waiting for three days when they could have safely ferried lakhs of people and then the person who had come out to help the safe transit of migrants was arrested, Awasthi said, adding that party workers and common people are most agitated over this high-handed behaviour of the Yogi government.