Even as the Akhilesh Yadav has completed six months in office, the ministers with criminal links have started showing their true colours by resorting to kidnapping, land grabbing and other unlawful activities.
The latest to fall foul of the law has been Natwar Goel, who had been the deputy chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Khadi Vikas Board and enjoyed the status of a minister of state. And Goel was on Wednesday arrested here over his alleged role in land grabbing and also for attacking the journalists.
He was appointed as the deputy chairman by minister Rajaram Pandey. Goel, who had virtually no political experience, had been courting controversy ever since his appointment some six months ago. Pandey had given Goel the status of MoS without even informing the Chief Minister, who had been annoyed with Pandey since then. It was alleged that Goel had been misusing his status and protocol by indulging in and mediating in petty disputes and browbeating the traders and businessmen. And he had set his eyes on the land belonging to a school in the Lalbagh area and wanted to build a commercial complex there. Even though the school’s management refused to budge, Goel and his goons tried to forcibly grab the land on Wednesday afternoon.
Goel has been sacked from the post of the deputy chairman of the Board and he has also been dismissed from the party, according to SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary.
