UP Assembly Turns Courtroom, 6 Cops Sent To One-Day Custody

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Assembly turned into a virtual courtroom on Friday and ‘sentenced’ 6 policemen to a day’s imprisonment.

The punishment was in connection with a 2004 breach of privilege notice served by then-BJP MLA Salil Vishnoi.

Vishnoi, who was leading a delegation to submit a memorandum against power cuts in Kanpur to the district magistrate almost 2 decades ago, claimed that police personnel misbehaved with him. Samajwadi Party was in power then, under chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Cut to the present, with UP being governed for the second straight term by BJP and Yogi Adityanath.

The government decided to schedule the hearing of those 6 policemen at the UP Assembly house on Friday. The cops were made to stand in the box as Parliamentary Affairs minister Suresh Khanna announced imprisonment for one day (till 12 midnight).

One of the accused, then-circle officer (CO) Abdul Samad, apologised to the House and sought relief, but his wish wasn’t granted.

The other cops were then-CO of Babupurva in Kanpur Nagar Abdul Samad (now retired), then-SHO of Kidwai Nagar Srikant Shukla, then-SI Triloki Singh, then constables Chote Singh, Vinod Mishra and Meharban Singh.

The policemen were confined to a room in the Vidhan Sabha building till midnight and all arrangements were made for them.