Buses row: UP govt asked to file reply on Priyanka Gandhi aide’s interim bail plea

The two were charged under Indian Penal Code sections related to forging documents and cheating after the state government said a list of 1,000 buses on which the party planned to ferry migrant workers contained vehicles without valid papers. Lallu was arrested and has been recently released on bail.

The Allahabad High Court on Friday asked the Uttar Pradesh government to file its reply on an application moved by an aide to Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for anticipatory bail following the buses row. Justice Rajesh Singh Chauhan fixed June 29 as the next date for hearing Sandeep Singh’s anticipatory bail plea.

The Congress leader’s secretary was booked along with the party’s state president Ajay Kumar Lallu on May 19. The two were charged under Indian Penal Code sections related to forging documents and cheating after the state government said a list of 1,000 buses on which the party planned to ferry migrant workers contained vehicles without valid papers.

Lallu was arrested and has been recently released on bail. Sandeep Singh moved the Lucknow bench of the high court, apprehending arrest in the same case. His lawyer Nadeem Murtaza argued that Hazratganj police had falsely implicated him.

Opposing the plea, UP’s Additional Advocate General V K Shahi said there was direct evidence against the petitioner. The probe is still on and the petitioner is not entitled to anticipatory bail at this stage, he argued. The Congress and the BJP government in the Uttar Pradesh faced off last month over migrant workers who were stranded in other states because of the coronavirus lockdown.

The party offered 1,000 buses to ferry some of them back to Uttar Pradesh. But the state government said the list of the buses submitted by the Congress contained registration numbers of autorickshaws, cars and trucks. Also, records showed that many of the buses in the list did not have valid fitness certificates or insurance papers, the government had said, accusing the opposition party of playing with the lives of workers.