LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said that Manish Jagan Aggarwal, who had been arrested by the Lucknow police, was to highlight the failures of the BJP government and traders' issues on the party's behalf.
Aggarwal was allegedly forcibly taken into custody by the Lucknow police, accusing him of "causing unrest in the society" through his social media engagements. The SP raised concerns regarding his health while in police custody.
"He is a patient of high blood pressure and his wife is also pregnant. If any harm happens to Manish Jagan ji or his family then Lucknow Police will be responsible for it," the party said in a post on X.
In response to the party's allegations, the Lucknow Police in a post on X said, "To prevent the strong possibility of continuously creating negativity, unrest and violence in the society through objectionable posts on social media, Manish Jagan Aggarwal was arrested and further legal action was taken against him."
In another post on X, SP demanded the police to share the objectionable posts by Aggarwal that allegedly caused unrest "or else stop exploiting opposition leaders with baseless things."
Speaking to the reporters outside the party office in Lucknow, Yadav said that Aggarwal was to highlight the failures of the BJP government and the issues faced by the traders.
"By the time traders understand GST, the government will change the way of collecting GST. Because of the GST, the government's profiteering (policies) and electoral bonds, we have to face inflation. Because of these (factors), inflation is increasing. These questions were raised by Aggarwal, but (we) don't know what problem the government has with the Samajwadi Media Cell," he said.
"And this is not the first time this has happened, it happened last time also when I had to go to Police Bhavan (apparently referring to his visit to the UP Police Headquarters in 2023). These BJP people have made the entire police force a part of the BJP. I will tell the police to leave their uniform. Bad things were being said about the SP's cap sometimes. The BJP people too have started wearing caps. You (police) should wear that cap and sit in the police station," he asserted.