UP minister under fire after cheating case filed against brother

MEERUT : Uttar Pradesh minister of state (independent charge) for vocational education and skill development Kapil Dev Agarwal has come under fire after a cheating case was lodged against his brother and others in Lucknow for allegedly fraudulently using the photos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Yogi Adityanath on the hoardings of a private cell phone company.

The minister allegedly participated at the launch function of the company in Lucknow earlier this month. The company had given the work of outdoor publicity to an advertising agency run by the minister’s brother Lalit Agarwal.

The launch took place on December 22. As questions were raised about the photos, they were removed from the hoarding by the advertising agency on December 26. It had also apologised over the matter.

Police officials requesting anonymity said an FIR was registered against Lalit Agarwal on December 26 at the Hazratganj police station in Lucknow in this regard.

The FIR was lodged under Indian Penal Code Sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating and dishonesty), 467 (forgery) and 469 (forgery for purpose of harming reputation).

Kapil Dev Agarwal is the MLA from Muzaffarnagar. The Congress, led by its Muzaffarnagar city president Zunaid Rauf, staged a protest on Tuesday, demanding action against the minister and immediate arrest of his brother. “The minister Kapil Dev participated in the launch function of a phone which is not in existence yet and its publicity work was given to his brother’s company, which used photos of PM and CM to present it as a project patronised by the government,” said Rauf.

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Sabha member Sanjay Singh also targeted the Yogi government on the issue.

In a tweet, he said inaction against the minister would prove that he had the patronage of the powers that be.

Describing it as a small matter, the minister held the police responsible for messing up the issue.

“They lodged a case against my brother without investigating the matter,” he said. He said the company gave a contract for the advertisement to his brother’s ad agency, which sublet the work to a Lucknow-based agency. “What’s the harm in it?” the minister asked and claimed that company had tendered its apology for using photos of the PM and the CM on the hoardings. He further said he participated at the launch function as a public representative.

Minister’s brother Lalit Agarwal said they displayed the design provided by the company.

“Where was our company’s fault?” he asked and blamed a section of the media for exaggerating the issue for no reason.

The company had described the mobile phone as Swadeshi Smart Phone. Rivals of the minister, on condition of anonymity, said that hoardings were displayed at several places and the company’s plan was to collect money by appointing dealers and distributors though phone was yet to reach the market.

They said the company and those associated with it used PM and CM’s photos to project it as a government-approved scheme so that they could easily win over the trust of people.

Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu demanded that the matter be probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

“This incident should be probed by the CBI, and people behind the scene should also be unmasked,” he said in a statement.