Expelled BJP leader Dayashankar Singh, who had been on the run for about a week after making derogatory remarks against BSP chief Mayawati, was arrested in Bihar’s Buxar on Friday.
Lucknow zone inspector general (IG) A Satish Ganesh confirmed the arrest of the former Uttar Pradesh BJP vice-president in an operation that was conducted with the help of Bihar Police.
Singh had been missing since July 21, a day after his Bharatiya Janata Party expelled him for comparing Dalit leader Mayawati to a prostitute.
An FIR was filed in Lucknow under the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and a court issued an arrest warrant against him on Monday.
Bihar Police said Singh was arrested from a sugar factory in Buxar. He had recently visited Baba Baidyanath Temple in Deoghar in neighbouring Jharkhand.
Read: BJP expels Daya Shankar from party for comparing Mayawati to prostitute
Singh, who was expelled from his party for six years ahead of the assembly elections in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh next year, drew flak from the BSP, which staged a massive protest in state capital Lucknow last week and demanded his arrest.
{{/usCountry}}Singh, who was expelled from his party for six years ahead of the assembly elections in politically crucial Uttar Pradesh next year, drew flak from the BSP, which staged a massive protest in state capital Lucknow last week and demanded his arrest.
{{/usCountry}}The remarks by Singh, an upper caste leader, came at a time protests were growing in Gujarat over an attack by cattle vigilantes on four Dalit men.
Singh’s family alleged harassment by BSP workers, and the BJP launched a counter-campaign to condemn the alleged problems faced by the leader’s wife and daughter.