MALAPPURAM: Uttar Pradesh police prevented senior IUML leader ET Mohammed Basheer, MP, from meeting the people in Kanpur who participated in protests against BJP leader Nupur Sharma’s remarks over Prophet Mohammed. The MP told TNIE that he had been under total control of the UP police for almost eight hours since he landed at Kanpur railway station on Thursday.
“I reached Kanpur railway station with a delegation at 10 pm on Thursday. I had earlier informed the police about my journey as I wanted to hold a press meet after meeting the protesters who were lodged in jail. Police blocked me outside the railway station. They said they wanted to discuss some confidential matters and asked me to accompany them to a guest house 10 km away. So, I obeyed them. However, later I realised that we were not travelling to the guest house. After 35 km of travel, I asked police officers to reveal what they wanted to tell me. Then the police officers said they had received an order from higher officials to send me back to Delhi,” Basheer said.
The next moment, the MP got out of the police vehicle and staged a sit-in in the area. However, a higher police official contacted the MP over phone and requested him to go back to Delhi. Considering the request, Basheer decided to go back.
“I reached Delhi around 6 am on Friday. The UP police escorted me to my flat in Delhi. I told them what they had done was cheating and they should have told me the truth before starting the journey from the railway station,” he added.
He told reporters in Delhi that the UP government follows undemocratic ways to suppress opposition. “The government confiscates the assets of those who raise dissent. This is an undemocratic way of handling people’s opposition. Our country has changed to a level that even people’s representatives cannot travel freely” he said.