An FIR has been lodged at Hazratganj police station in Lucknow against Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi’s secretary Sandeep Singh and Uttar Pradesh Congress President Ajay Kumar Lallu for cheating and forgery in connection with the list of buses that the Congress party had submitted with the UP govt to carry migrants to the state. The Congress leaders have also been charged with running buses carrying migrants to Uttar Pradesh without obtaining necessary permission as per rules.
प्रियंका गांधी के सचिव संदीप सिंह और यूपी में कांग्रेस के अध्यक्ष अजय लल्लू पर बसों की लिस्ट देने में ग़लत जानकारी और धोखाधड़ी का मुक़दमा दर्ज हुआ है. #FIR लखनऊ के हज़रतगंज थाने में हुई है @ABPNews @priyankagandhi
— Pankaj Jha (@pankajjha_) May 19, 2020
The list of buses submitted by the Congress party contained many incorrect details, as they included auto-rickshaws, ambulances, trucks etc, while details of many vehicles were not available. It was also found that fitness certificate and insurance of several buses included in the list have expired. Therefore, a case of forgery and fraud for the purpose of cheating have also been registered against the Congress leaders.
The FIR have been filed under sections 182, 420, 467 and 468 of the IPC.
Uttar Pradesh police also said that the Congress party moved the buses carrying migrants to the Uttar Pradesh border without obtaining the necessary passes. According to the union home ministry guidelines, one needs to apply for permission for inter-state movement of buses, and buses can be run only after such permissions are granted. As hundreds of buses arranged by the Congress party had reached the UP border, they were denied entry by the state police due to lack of permission. This had caused the Congress workers to stage a sit-in protest at Agra-Rajasthan border in Uncha Nangla area earlier in the day today.
Following the protest, Uttar Pradesh Congress President Ajay Kumar Lallu was removed by police. A video had appeared where Ajay was seen carried by some police personnel. UP police had clarified that they have not arrested him, and only removed him from the spot.
Congress provided an erroneous list of buses to UP government
On 16 May 2020, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had tweeted a letter wherein she has written to UP government seeking permission to ply 1,000 buses for migrant workers. Heeding Ms Vadra’s letter, the Uttar Pradesh government on Monday accepted Congress General Secretary’s offer of providing 1,000 buses for migrant workers. The UP administration has written to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to submit the details of the buses along with drivers and co-drivers so that the process can be started. Accordingly, the Congress party had submitted a list of buses they intend to use with the UP government.
But in a major embarrassment to Congress, the list of ‘buses’ sent by Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi claiming to be that filled with migrant workers stranded at Delhi-UP border contains blacklisted numbers, cars and even three-wheeled auto-rickshaws.
UP government confirmed the list of buses provided by Congress was incorrect
According to a letter written by the Lucknow RTO department to Police Commissionerate Lucknow, a staggering 170 vehicles out of the list of 1049 were not buses as claimed by the Congress party. The letter also included categorisation of vehicles based on the list of buses provided by the Congress party. The analysis of the 1049 registration details of the vehicles revealed that 31 of them were registered as autos/three-wheelers, 69 of them as ambulances/school buses/trucks while there were no details available for 70 vehicles. Furthermore, it added that a vehicle with the registration number RJ 51 PA 0288 was added in two lists.
However, after the letters of the UP govt went viral on social media, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took to Twitter to defend herself. She said that in the inspection by UP govt, it has been found that there are 879 buses in the list of 1049, thereby admitting that the rest 170 are not buses. The Congress general secretary also alleged that UP govt has kept more than 500 buses blocked for several hours, and now more than 300 buses are arriving on the Delhi border.
