Lucknow: Prahlad Modi, the younger brother of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sat on dharna at the Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport in the Uttar Pradesh capital Wednesday seeking the release of his supporters who were allegedly detained by UP Police.
While an aide was being held in police custody in Sultanpur for forgery, Prahlad claimed supporters were detained in Lucknow when they tried to receive him at the airport Wednesday.
Prahlad, who is the vice-president of All India Fair Price Shop Dealers’ Federation and is on personal visit to the state, questioned the functioning of UP Police while speaking to reporters, and threatened to go on an indefinite hunger strike if his supporters were not released.
Jitendra Tiwari, an aide of Prahlad, was detained in Sultanpur Tuesday for forgery after he put up posters about an event, featuring pictures of PM Modi and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, without authorisation.
Sultanpur Superintendent of Police Arvind Chaturvedi told ThePrint that investigations revealed that the UP government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were not related to the event, which is to be hosted by Prahlad Thursday.
During the dharna, Prahlad raised the slogan, “Tanashahi band karo (stop your dictatorship)”, directed at the UP Police. He ended the sit-in in the evening after Tiwari was released.
UP BJP spokesperson Naveen Srivastava refused to comment on the issue when ThePrint reached him via phone calls, saying it was Prahlad’s personal matter and the party has no role in it.
ThePrint also reached Uttar Pradesh government spokesperson Siddharth Nath Singh via phone calls but didn’t receive a respond until the time of publishing this report.
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Police deny his version, BJP says no comment
The UP Police denied Prahlad’s claims, adding that his supporters were not detained at the airport.
“We heard that his supporters were planning to do a programme in Lucknow but they have not taken any permission. We have not detained anyone but we conveyed to him that due to Covid protocol it is not allowed to gather crowds anywhere without any prior permission,” Somen Barma, deputy commissioner (central), Lucknow Police, told ThePrint.
“If he gets angry after listening to this, we cannot do anything,” added Barma.
An official at the airport, on condition of anonymity, said, “Prahlad Modi arrived in Lucknow by an Indigo flight around 4 pm. He sat on a dharna on the airport premises as he was unhappy over police stopping his supporters from reaching there. Prahlad Modi left after an hour and a half.”
UP Congress spokesperson Surendra Rajput said, “If something like this can happen to the PM’s brother, then what can we say about the common public? This is not the first time when UP Police did such things. They stopped opposition leaders also in this way.”
In 2019, Prahlad Modi had sat on a dharna at a police station in Jaipur demanding a separate vehicle for policemen escorting him.
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