BHOPAL: In a late development, senior BJP leaders, including BJP national general-secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and Indore MP Shankar Lalwani were booked by police in Indore for violating prohibitory orders, unlawful assembly, criminal intimidation and wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot.
A case was registered at Indore’s Sanyogitaganj police station on Saturday late night against Vijayvargiya, Lalwani, Indore-II MLA Ramesh Mendola and Indore-V MLA Mahendra Hardia, local BJP leader Gopikrishna Nema and 350 others," station in-charge NS Raghuvanshi told TNIE.
The case was registered against the BJP leaders following a complaint by a SDM, in which it was alleged that Vijayvargiya and other BJP leaders had violated prohibitory orders clamped in Indore on December 10, 2019 as per which all kinds of rallies and processions were banned in Indore district.
On Friday, Vijayvargiya along with other leaders had reportedly staged dharna outside the residence of Indore Divisional Commissioner sans any permission and had also talked in a threatening tone nto an administrative official publicly.
Peeved over the administrative and police officials not heeding to local BJP leader’s written request to meet him and local public representatives of the party in Indore on Friday afternoon, Vijayvargiya lost his cool while talking to an SDM in Indore on Friday.
"A letter was written to them (officials) intimating that we wanted to meet them to discuss the issues confronting Indore. But forget about meeting us, they (officials) didn’t even inform us whether they are in or out of town. We won’t tolerate this, had the office bearers of Sangh (RSS) not been in Indore, we would have set Indore ablaze," the BJP leader said to the SDM.
Vijayvargiya, who was flanked by other BJP leaders, including Lalwani, Mendola and son Akash, didn’t stop there, but went on to say in the same threatening tone. "Such arrogance among local officials towards public representatives isn’t healthy in democracy. Neglecting BJP and its leaders will prove costly to the concerned officials..I hope they (officials) know what I’m hinting at. Are the officials working for Kamal Nath or the people of MP," he said.
Importantly, top office bearers of the RSS (BJP’s parent outfit), including Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat are presently in Indore for the three-day national conclave slated from January 5-7.
Informed sources confided to The New Indian Express that Vijayvargiya (ex-Indore mayor and former MLA from different seats of Indore) had asked local officials to meet him over various local issues, particularly the ongoing demolition drive against land sharks and organized mafia, which include some powerful men close to BJP leaders.
Angered over the local officials not meeting him and other BJP leaders on Friday afternoon, Vijayvargiya sat on a dharna outside the outside the commissioner’s residence in Indore. "If the BJP people, including party workers are targeted by the ongoing anti-mafia demolition drive, we won’t sit and watch as mute spectators. We’ve prepared a list of 167 Congress workers whose shops and houses are illegal, why isn’t the local administration acting against them," Vijayvargiya asked on Friday.
Earlier, on Saturday, a ruling Congress delegation had met Madhya Pradesh DGP VK Singh in Bhopal and demanded criminal case be lodged against Vijayvargiya for his threatening statements and unlawful assembly in Indore on Friday.