Lucknow, Sept. 19: The three BJP legislators who gave police the slip outside the Uttar Pradesh Assembly last evening stayed away from the House today along with the lady who is said to have planned their getaway.
Uma Bharti, the saffron-clad MLA, who sped off in a car with the trio accused of inciting the Muzaffarnagar violence, also skipped Assembly proceedings with sources saying she might have taken two of the three men with her to party-ruled Madhya Pradesh.
If the state police were still smarting from the embarrassment of letting the MLAs melt away from right under their noses, another setback was in store for the Akhilesh Yadav government.
Additional director-general of police Arun Kumar went on leave from today amid allegations of political interference in the handling of the flare-up that has claimed 48 lives and displaced nearly 30,000 people since the violence erupted early this month.
Sources in the state’s home department confirmed the development, saying IG (law and order) R.K. Viswakarma had been given Kumar’s charge.
Sangeet Som (42), Bhartendu Singh (53) and Hukum Singh (62) — the three MLAs against whom arrest warrants had been issued — skipped Assembly proceedings today. Uma, too, couldn’t be seen in the House.
Hukum, apparently still in Lucknow at an undisclosed location, responded to questions from some reporters who got in touch with him through his supporters, but neither Som nor Bhartendu Singh could be reached.
Sources said Uma, one of the BJP’s key leaders during the temple movement of the 90s, might have taken the two MLAs to BJP-governed Madhya Pradesh, a state she once ruled. “The two may now consult their lawyers, free from the worries of arrest in Madhya Pradesh,” said a party leader. Bhartendu Singh’s house in Lucknow was locked. Som’s telephone was switched off. The youngest among the three, Som, had yesterday dared the police to arrest him before Uma spirited them away in a car.
A police team waiting outside the House to arrest them lost the trio after hundreds of party supporters formed a human wall around them after they had emerged from the House. Uma, now an Uttar Pradesh MLA, is said to have planned the escape.
