Uttar Pradesh Navnirman Sena president Amit Jani and his supporters, who are in jail in connection with the desecration of former chief minister Mayawati’s statue here on July 26 has threatened to go on indefinite fast from September 23 if charges of sedition were not withdrawn against them.
In a press statement from the Lucknow district jail here, Jani alleged that it is unfortunate that while the youth who have fought against the BSP rule in the past were being ignored and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and his ministers are hobnobbing with the BSP leaders nowdays. “It seems Samajwadi Party has now made a U-turn from its earlier announcement to punish those who were involved in the statue scam during the previous regime. But the fate of the SP would be similar like that of BJP, who reverted from its Ram Temple promise after coming to power,” he claimed. Jani said he has already sent letters to Cartoonist Aseem Trivedi and to Press Council of Chairman Justice (Retd) Markandey Katju on his opposition to section 124(A)which deals with sedition charges. He announced that if the UP government does not withdraw the sedition charges against him and his supporters, who are in jail, then they will sit on indefinite fast from September 23 inside the jail. Other supporters of Jani who are in jail are Shagun Tyagi, Pawan Sharma, Rajendra Choudhury and Quasim Ali. Jani, was a supporter of the ruling SP and worked with Akhilesh Yadav during the assembly elections.
Six people including prime accused Jani were arrested in connection with vandalising of the statue of former UP CM and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati at Ambedkar Memorial.
Six unidentified miscreants had beheaded the marble statute of Mayawati. Amit Jani, the president of the UP Navnirman Sena, took responsibility of the act. He held a press conference before the incident. He said the destruction of the statue was ‘their way to express anger against the scams which took place under the Mayawati regime.’ Later, he went underground before being arrested from a Mall in Gurgaon. Jani has seven criminal cases against him in police record. The UP government had replaced the damaged marble statue of Mayawati overnight with a new one at Ambedkar Park in Lucknow. UNI