Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s secretary Sandeep Singh and Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu have been booked by the police after the state government claimed that the list of 1,000 buses provided by them included numbers of autorickshaws, cars and trucks.
They have been booked on charges of providing false information to public servants, dishonesty, forgery of valuable security and forgery for the purpose of cheating. The case was registered on a complaint by Road Transport Officer PR Trivedi on Tuesday.
This came on a day the Congress traded charges with the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh and held a protest at the Rajasthan-Uttar Pradesh border.
The Congress party on Monday night submitted the list of 1,000 buses which the party planned to use to ferry migrant workers at its own expense. But the state government on Tuesday afternoon said that details of 1,000 buses sent by the Congress party included two-wheelers, autos and goods carriers numbers and accused the grand old party of committing fraud and mocking migrants who are facing the brunt of the lockdown.
“We have done preliminary inquiry and it has come to surface that out of the buses for which they sent details, many are turning out to be 2-wheelers, autos and goods carriers,” Cabinet minister and BJP leader Sidharth Nath Singh said.
The Congress, however, rejected the claim and dared it to conduct a physical verification of the buses. Priyanka tweeted that vehicles are stranded at Agra border and are not allowed to enter Uttar Pradesh.
“These buses have been stranded at Agra border for the past three hours, however, the Agra administration has not been allowing us to enter the city. I want to appeal to you once again that this is the time to display sensitivity. Please grant us permission so that we can proceed,” she said in a letter, her fourth, to the Yogi government.
As per the records available, many of the buses in the list submitted by the Congress did not have valid fitness certificates or insurance papers and about 100 vehicles were not buses. Of the buses, 297 lacked either a fitness certificate or valid insurance papers.
The drama began on May 16 when Priyanka tweeted a letter addressed to CM Yogi Adityanath and sought permission to run 1,000 buses on the party expense to ferry migrants back home. The state government replied informing her that the proposal has been accepted and sought the details of buses and drives of the buses. The Congress party on Monday night itself submitted the list of 1,000 buses, but was left embarrassed after the UP government claimed it contained numbers of auto rickshaws, bikes, cars and trucks.
