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Mainpuri man who led attack on SP Singh Baghel’s convoy arrested: Police
UP election: Union minister and BJP candidate from Karhal, SP Singh Baghel, alleged Umakant Yadav, the man arrested by the Mainpuri Police, identified himself and asked an associate to attack him
AGRA: Two men were arrested on Wednesday for the alleged attack on the convoy of SP Singh Baghel, the union minister who is contesting against Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav from Karhal, police said.
Two men, Umakant Yadav and Vinod Yadav, were arrested on Wednesday morning in connection with the arrest, said officiating superintendent of police (Mainpuri) Madhuban Kumar. According to Baghel’s complaint, Yadav led the attackers.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader filed a first information report (FIR) complaining that on Tuesday night, his convoy was attacked with stones and sticks near Attikullapur village in Uttar Pradesh’s Manipuri district. Baghel escaped unhurt but the window of a vehicle in Baghel’s convoy was shattered.
Karhal is one of the four assembly seats in Mainpuri district that will go to polls on February 20 in the third phase of UP elections.
The minister has accused SP workers in the district of carrying out the attack. BJP leader and UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya pinned the blame for attacks on SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, claiming that Akhilesh was flustered at the prospect of the BJP winning the four assembly segments in Mainpuri district, considered the pocket borough of the Akhilesh Yadav’s family.
The Mainpuri Police, which made the arrests, hasn’t revealed details about the arrest or the role that the two accused played in the attack.
In the FIR, Baghel alleged that the SP workers intercepted his car, raising slogans ‘Akhilesh Yadav zindabad’.
“The SP workers, hiding in a farm area, suddenly came on the road raising a slogan One amongst them hurled expletives at me for contesting assembly election from Karhal against their leader Akhilesh bhaiyya. The accused said he was Umakant Yadav from Nagla Bada in Mainpuri district,” stated Baghel in the FIR.
“These SP supporters were carrying ‘lathis’ and other illegal arms. The accused, Umakant Yadav, called his aide Beetu whom he asked to finish me so that the election for me ends there and then. Fortunately, I was saved but the widow of my car were smashed in the attack besides damage to another car in the convoy in which my supporter Sanjay Sharma was seated,” alleged Baghel.
“Umakant Yadav then fired at Sanjay Sharma, but missed. Meanwhile, our security personnel got down and chased away the hooligans,” the minister said, according to the FIR.
The Mainpuri Police haven’t, however, been able to confirm if shots were also fired as alleged by the minister. NK Singh, in-charge of Karhal police station, said the minister’s allegations about firing were still being investigated.
