Bareilly: BJP leader Varun Gandhi on Monday came out in support of controversial independent MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya, jailed for allegedly threatening to kill a candidate in local polls, claiming that he was being implicated in false cases.
"Raja Bhaiyya is being implicated in false cases which will not stand in the court of law. Gangster Act has been invoked against him wrongly," Varun told reporters after meeting the MLA from Pratapgarh, who is currently lodged in central jail here.
The BJP national secretary said that "a case of theft of Rs 25,000 had been lodged against a person, who belongs to a royal family. He had been arrested in abduction of a person, whose even name and address is not known.
"This has been done against a person, who was a senior minister and has a political status. This is an insult of not only Raja Bhaiyya, but the people of Pratapgarh as a whole," Varun said after an over hour long meeting with the MLA, who was arrested last month.
He alleged that there were a number of MLAs in the BSP who were accused of serious crimes but Gangster Act was not invoked against them.
Meanwhile, an outfit Akhil Bhartiya Chhatriya Mahasabha today said it will launch an agitation from January 21 to protest the MLA`s arrest.
Raja Bhaiyya along with SP MP Shailendra Kumar, MLA Vinod Saroj and MLC Akshay Pratap Singh alias Gopalji and seven others were arrested in Pratapgarh on December 19.
The arrests came after an FIR was registered on a complaint of Manoj Kumar Shukla, BSP candidate for Babuganj block head post.
Raja Bhaiyya and Gopalji were shifted to Bareilly jail from Pratapgarh prison on December 26 night.
All the arrested are currently lodged in different jails in judicial custody.
PTI
