BJP MP among 20 booked in land dispute, denies involvement

GORAKHPUR: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Kamlesh Paswan was among 20 people against whom an FIR was filed in connection with a land dispute in Bankatichak locality under Cantonment police station here on Sunday evening, police said. The Bansgaon MP denied his involvement in the matter.

Senior superintendent of police, Gorakhpur, Satyartha Anirudhdh Pankaj said: “Kamlesh Paswan, the main conspirator in this incident, has been booked with 20 others. “We have corroborative evidence against him and his associates Surendra Prasad and Sateesh Nanglia. CCTV footage of the incident has been also obtained.”

The FIR was lodged on the basis of a complaint filed by Asadullah Varsi, the supposed owner of the land, police said.

Varsi has accused the MP of providing patronage to land mafiosi, who reached the site and demolished an under-construction wall and asked him to vacate the land, police said. Varsi claimed they also issued a life threat to the victim, he said.

The MP denied his involvement in the incident. “I don’t know anything about this. It’s a conspiracy to implicate me falsely. I was not present at the site at the time of the incident,” Paswan said .

The case was filed under Section 147 (rioting), 148 (armed with deadly weapons), 149 (unlawful assembly in prosecution of common object), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, police said.