Congress, SP leaders booked for communal ads

A Congress party legislator and a Samajwadi Party Lok Sabha candidate in Uttar Pradesh's Banda constituency have been booked for attempting to disturb peace and communal harmony by issuing caste, creed and religion-based appeals in a newspaper, police said on Friday.

A Congress party legislator and a Samajwadi Party Lok Sabha candidate in Uttar Pradesh's Banda constituency have been booked for attempting to disturb peace and communal harmony by issuing caste, creed and religion-based appeals in a newspaper, police said on Friday.

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"A case under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against the Congress legislator Vivek Singh and the Samajwadi Party's Banda Lok Sabha nominee R K Singh Patel for their intent to disturb peace and communal harmony," police inspector Rameshwar Maurya said over phone.

He said both politicians had issued caste, creed and religion-based appeals in a local newspaper Wednesday to garner support for their respective parties, added Maurya.

Singh and Patel have been booked under section 153 (A) (Promoting enmity between two groups on grounds of religion, race, language etc), section 153 (B) (Imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), section 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the IPC, police said.

According to Maurya, the case against Singh and Patel was registered Thursday night on the directions of the district administration that initiated an inquiry after the appeal was issued in the local newspaper.