Petition challenging Atal's election dismissed

LUCKNOW: Justice AN Verma of the High Court has dismissed an election petition challenging election of former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee from the Lucknow Parliamentary constituency on grounds of non-adherence and non-compliance of the Constitution of India, Representation of Peoples Act and the Rules etc.
The petition was filed by one Major SN Tripathi in which the Election Commission of India, Union of India, Returning officer of Lucknow Parliamentary Constituency and the BJP through its president had been arrayed as the respondents.It was urged on behalf of the petitioner that the above irregularities had vitiated the election and was thus liable to be declared void.
On the contrary, it was contended on behalf of the BJP by senior advocate Keshari Nath Tripathi that the election petition was completely bereft of material facts and did not disclose any cause of action and as such was liable to be dismissed at the very beginning itself.
After going through the pleadings of the petitioner and upon reading the petition as a whole, the court was of the view that the election petition was devoid of material facts, which was a mandatory requirement and hence the petition was liable to be dismissed at the very threshold.
Bank dacoity accused in police remand: Ramu alias Jeet alias Jitendra Singh who was involved in the dacoity at the Union Bank of India under the Krishna Nagar police station here on January 7, was on Tuesday remanded in five days police custody, which began at 8 pm from that very day. It was urged on behalf of the prosecution that the accused had assured to get the looted amount recovered from his friends and aquaintences at Unnao and Delhi.