Haathras/ Lucknow: With several members of
Mayawati ministry facing the heat from the anti-graft
ombudsman, state Energy Minister Ramveer Upadhyaya launched a
scathing attack on UP Lokayukta Justice N K Mehrotra and
threatened to get him removed.
"BJP national general secretary Kirit Somaiya lodged a
complaint against me with Lokayukta, but nothing was found. If
I did not have personal relationship with Lokayukta.... I
could have moved the Supreme Court and got him removed,"
Upadhyaya said while addressing a public meeting in Haathras
last evening.
Reacting on the minister`s outburst, Lokayukta Justice
Mehrotra said that the the statement was made out of anxiety
at the behest of the BSP and the Election Commission should
take cognisance of the matter.
The minister said, "I told the Lokayukta that I want to
meet him...he said that come to my house as my stature is not
so to call you to my office Ramveer Upadhyaya,"
"I told him that I won`t come to your office...even if
you consider me guilty not even then.... I went to his house
and told him that what he is and what he can do and what I am
and what I can do," he said.
The minister said, "I had been a student of law and I
know law very well...I know law more than him."
Ahead of the assembly polls, five minister had been
removed by Mayawati on the recommendation of Lokayukta Justice
N K Mehrotra.
"It is an act out of anxiety.... it`s not an individual
act, but party act," Justice Mehrotra said on the minister`s
statement.
The Lokayukta said that while on one hand Upadhyaya
claims of having personal relationship with him, on the other
he threatens of approaching the Supreme Court and get him
removed.
He said that probably it was attempt to create
pressure so that the inquiry against him does not proceed.
Justice Mehrotra said that there was a provision in law
where a complaint on a matter could be lodged before the
competent magistrate, but as Upadhyaya wanted to take
advantage of the situation, he was not considering taking
action as of now.
"People will teach him a lesson in the elections," he
said.
PTI
