LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Minister of state for women and child welfare Swati Singh has courted controversy as a purported audio clip carrying the conversation of the minister with a police officer has gone viral on social media.
In the audio clip, the minister can be heard threatening a police officer to withdraw an FIR registered against a prominent builder on Saturday.
Taking cognizance of the issue, CM Yogi Adityanath not only sought a report on the issue from UP DGP OP Singh but also summoned the minister concerned and reportedly gave her a sound dressing down at his residence on Saturday morning before leaving for Gorakhpur.
Moreover, the CM also issued directives to the DGP to conduct a probe into the issue and furnish full report to him with all the details.
As per the highly placed sources, the CM was extremely disturbed over the issue and reprimanded the minister for her behaviour. He apparently told her that such acts brought a bad name to the government.
In the 36-second audio, the minister can be heard asking the police officer in the rank of circle officer as to why did she register a particular FIR against a prominent real estate player. She can be heard even threatening the cop of action.
However, the police officer had been continuously claiming during the purported conversation with the minister that the FIR was lodged only after a thorough probe into the charges against the builder and finding it to be a fit case for registering the FIR.
The minister even tried to drop CM's name to mount pressure on the police officer claiming that he was also in the know-how of the issue.
At present the builder and his son are in jail in a case of fraud after being arrested from Lucknow airport while they were going to London on September 29.
Meanwhile, acting swiftly on the directives of the chief minister, the DGP sought a report from Lucknow SSP Kalanidhi Naithani within the next 24 hours. He also asked the SSP to check the veracity of the audio clip already viral on social media.