SEVEN MONTHS after MLC Dinesh Pratap Singh left Congress to join the BJP, the state government has ordered withdrawal of a criminal case lodged against him in Rae Bareli in 2013. Advertising Dinesh Singh, along with 10 others, had been booked for blocking the Sultanpur-Rae Bareli Highway and throwing traffic out of gear during a violent protest. The trial of the case is pending at a special court in Prayagraj. “The withdrawal application in a case against Dinesh Singh was yesterday moved in the concerned court. We received withdrawal application from the state government through the office of the Rae Bareli district magistrate,” said District Government Council, Prayagraj, Gulab Chandra Agrihari. Explained BJP’s tool: A deflection in Gandhi bastion ON APRIL 22 this year, the BJP had organised a massive public meeting addressed by party chief Amit Shah in Gandhi bastion Rae Bareli to welcome Congress MLC Dinesh Pratap Singh and his supporters into the party fold. The Congress has filed a petition in the State Legislative Council seeking the cancellation of Singh’s membership under the anti-defection law, but the decision is pending. Dinesh’s brother Rakesh Singh too is a Congress MLA from Rae Bareli’s Harchandpur constituency, but he has not joined BJP so far. Sources said the BJP is all set to use Dinesh Singh against Congress in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. Singh was known to be close to the Gandhi family, and the party’s strong hand in the district. Police said Singh and others had staged a protest at the Digiya Bazaar crossing, blocking the Sultanpur-Rae Bareli Highway due to which movement of vehicles including an ambulance had been blocked. Police had then used force to disperse the crowd. Advertising Later, on the basis of a complaint filed by the then station officer of Mill Area police station, an FIR was lodged against Dinesh Singh and 10 others under IPC sections 145 (joining or continuing in unlawful assembly, knowing it has been commanded to disperse), 341 (wrongful restraint) and 283 (danger or obstruction in public way or line of navigation). The Rae Bareli police investigated the case and then filed a chargesheet against all 11 accused on the same charges in January 2016. “I was on the way to Sultanpur when I saw people protesting on the roadside at Digiya Bazaar locality. They were protesting over an attack on a businessman, Badrinath, who suffered serious injuries after being thrashed by two motorcyclists. Local residents stopped my vehicle as I was a public representative. Being an MLC, I joined the protest but there was no blockade on the road. Police falsely lodged a case and implicated me,” said Dinesh Singh. He further said, “I had requested Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to conduct an inquiry because the then Samajwadi Party government had falsely named me in the case. I requested chief minister that if they found that the case was lodged on false allegations, then to withdraw it. I don’t know the present status of the case.” He added that Congress had moved for his disqualification under the anti-defectionl aw, which is still pending. In January this year, the state government had withdraw a criminal case against former deputy SP and Congress leader Shailendra Singh, who joined BJP during the Lok Sabha polls in 2014. In 2008, Shailendra was booked by Hazratganj police in Lucknow for allegedly indulging in a ruckus at the State Information Commission (SIC) office.

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