BHOPAL: A Congress leader has been booked by police for celebrating party national president Rahul Gandhi’s 48th birthday allegedly in government school premises in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh.
A case has been registered at Jeeran police station of Neemuch district under Section 188 of IPC against Congress leader Ramesh Rajora for celebrating Rahul Gandhi’s birthday in government school premises in Chainpura village (450 km from Bhopal) sans any prior permission on Tuesday.
The Congress leader Ramesh Rajora, who is the Neemuch district convener of Congress party’s Rajiv Gandhi Panchayati Raj Sangathan, however, claimed that he has been falsely implicated in the case under pressure of ruling BJP leaders. “Is distributing biscuits among school children to mark the birthday of our young leader a crime,” asked Rajora on Thursday.
“The case has been registered against me on the complaint of the school head master. But actually, the complaint has been made and the case registered under pressure of ruling BJP leaders,” the Congress leader Ramesh Rajora told The New Indian Express.
“The complainant school head master has alleged that the birthday celebrations were organized in school premises. But actually the celebrations were organized outside the school premises. When the birthday was being celebrated, a local BJP worker arrived on the scene and clicked pictures of celebrations. After that the school head master was pressurized to file a complaint against me,” claimed Rajora.
Agitated over the lodging of case against Rajora, a delegation of Congress workers led by Neemuch district party unit president Nandkishore Patel met the SP Neemuch TK Vidyarthi on Wednesday and demanded that the case lodged against the party leader be withdrawn.
The Jeeran police station in-charge Ramesh Chandra Dangi, while confirming that a case has been lodged against Rajora on Tuesday, said that “the case has been lodged under Section 188 of IPC (disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant) on the complaint of the school headmaster. The complainant has alleged that birthday celebrations and public meeting were held inside the school premises on June 19 sans any permission. As prohibitory orders under Section 144 are still imposed in the district, particularly making prior permission of authorities compulsory for holding any public gathering, hence a case has been lodged under Section 188 of IPC,” said Dangi.
Reacting sharply over the development, MP Congress spokesperson Pankaj Chaturvedi said “it’s bizarre that while in the virtual world, both PM Narendra Modi and MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan tweet birthday greetings to Rahul Gandhi on his birthday, in the real world the cops in BJP ruled MP book a Congress worker for distributing biscuits to school children over same birthday celebrations.”