After raid on house, ex-minister alleges political vendetta

GORAKHPUR : Former Uttar Pradesh minister Hari Shankar Tiwari and his son Vinay Shankar Tiwari, an MLA, on Monday led a demonstration at the collectorate here against a police raid on the ex-minister’s residence on Saturday. Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) workers participated in the demonstration.

The police had raided the residence of the former minister in search of clues to the whereabouts of an accused in the loot of Rs 98 lakh from a cash van on March 14.

During Monday’s protest, Hari Shankar Tiwari said, “The raid was politically motivated and aimed at tarnishing our image. Police raided our house without a search warrant.”

Vinay Shankar Tripathi, the BSP MLA from Chillupar, said, “The police said they came to my house to search for one Sonu Pathak but all of you will be surprised to know that Sonu Pathak is already in Ballia jail. Now, it is clear that the police action was politically motivated.”

Vinay Shankar Tiwari also said: “When I asked the police about a search warrant, they didn’t respond and said only that it (the raid) was conducted on the chief minister’s directive. They detained five people and even beat up the guard for no reason.”

Demanding the suspension of superintendent of police (city) Hemraj Meena, Vinay Shankar Tiwari handed over a memorandum to the district magistrate. The memorandum was addressed to governor Ram Naik.

Without taking anyone’s name, Vinay Shankar Tiwari said, “After the election result, a senior BJP leader said he was not very happy to win eight assembly seats of the area but he was more sad to lose the Chillupar seat. It shows the intention of the state government. They want to kill the opposition and run the assembly without an opposition.”

The police said they came to my house to search for one Sonu Pathak but all of you will be surprised to know that Sonu Pathak is already in Ballia jail VINAY SHANKAR TRIPATHI, BSP MLA from Chillupar