Allahabad HC to hear bail plea of UP Cong chief on June 16

UP Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu, arrested for allegedly forging documents of buses offered by his party to ferry migrant workers, on Friday failed to get any reprieve from the Allahabad High Court, which will now hear his bail plea on June 16. He had moved the Lucknow bench of the court after a special court for legislators rejected his bail plea. Fixing the hearing for June 16, Justice A R Masoodi directed the state government to lay before the bench the case diary in the matter.

In his bail plea, Lallu has contended that he was being harassed due to political vendetta and there is no evidence against him in the case. The convenor of the state Congress media cell, Lalan Kumar, said the party will continue with it “seva satyagrah' for the release of Lallu, who has been ‘jailed for serving the needy’. “A jail bharo andolan will also be started soon for the release of the UPCC president. People of the state are noticing this arbitrary attitude of the BJP and the Yogi Aditynath government,” he said. Lallu was arrested on May 20 after the state government lodged a case against him for allegedly providing false documents of buses offered by Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi to the state. A special court for lawmakers had rejected Lallu's bail plea on June 1 after which the party had decided to challenge it in the high court. Lallu, 41, is a sitting Congress MLA from the Tamukhi Raj assembly constituency of Kushinagar district of Uttar Pradesh.