Minister, supporters come knocking at DM’s office, demand action against pradhan

LUCKNOW: It was a piquant situation on Saturday when minister of state for jails Suresh Rahi and his supporters sat outside the office of the Sitapur district magistrate to “apprise him of an alleged police high-handedness to target innocent locals in a dispute related to a gaushala land”.
Though the minister vehemently denied later that it was not a sit-in and he was there to meet the DM to seek action in the matter, Rahi’s action brought the entire administrative machinery on toes.
First sub-divisional magistrate Pankaj Rathore was sent to persuade the minister to end the deadlock, but he failed. Later, when Sitapur DM Anuj Singh and SP Ghule Sushil Chandrabhan reached the spot, met the minister and assured him of an impartial probe, the minister left.
Allegations are that the village pradhan had forcibly set free cows at a gaushala in Pipraghuri village of the district and when the villagers objected, the village pradhan’s husband and his men assaulted them.
“Instead of initiating action against the accused pradhan’s husband, police have sent notices to 170 villagers on behalf of the SDM, including those who were not even residents of the village. A statue of Dr BR Ambedkar was also vandalised in the area, following which, I called up the Sitapur SP and apprised him of the situation and asked him to take action against it. But no action was taken,” Rahi told journalists on Saturday morning. “I had made a visit along with some of my supporters to the DM’s office to apprise him of the problems faced by the locals,” said the minister. The minister also said that fake news of his staging a sit-in was being spread to tarnish his image, but he will identify those and take action. Suresh Rahi is a BJP MLA from Hargaon seat.