Rajbhar gives clean chit to Akhilesh in bungalow row, meets Shivpal

VARANASI: Giving a clean chit to Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav in the controversy over damage to the government bungalow Yadav vacated recently, SBSP president and UP minister Om Prakash Rajbhar on Friday said it was a conspiracy to defame him (Yadav).

“No leader, be it Akhilesh or anybody else, will commit such an act while vacating a government bungalow. There may be a conspiracy to defame him (Yadav),” Rajbhar said before meeting senior SP leader Shivpal Yadav at Circuit House here, triggering speculations of an alliance between the two parties.

Though it was not known as to what transpired between the two leaders in the closed-door meeting that lasted 10 minutes, they came out hand-in-hand with smiles on their faces.

Refusing to comment on the SP president questioning the role of officials at the CM’s office in the alleged damage, Rajbhar said the matter was related to Akhilesh and CM Yogi Adityanath and they were the best persons to respond to it.

CHENNAI: In the backdrop of President Ram Nath Kovind rejecting Tamil Nadu government’s request to release the seven prisoners convicted for former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, Arputhammal 71, mother of AG Perarivalan, on Friday demanded mercy killing (euthanasia) for her son, as he was slowly dying in the prison.

“I don’t want my son to live in agony anymore and I am going to write to the state and Centre seeking mercy killing for my son,” Arputhammal told reporters.