Yogi harassing me, says former minister Hari Shankar Tiwari
The police official, however, admitted that the police were not carrying court permission for the search.
Lucknow: UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath is now facing his first allegation and it comes from his home town Gorakhpur.
Former minister and erstwhile mafia don Hari Shankar Tiwari — whose house was raided by the police last week on the pretext of catching a robber — has said that he was being harassed at the behest of the chief minister with whom he has had differences.
Hari Shankar Tiwari has served as minister in BJP and SP government and his son Vinay Shankar Tiwari is an MLA from the Bahujan Samaj Party.
“The police claimed that they had come looking for a robber but the fact is that the incident was designed to harass my father, a six term MLA and malign the image of our family,” Vinay Shankar Tiwari said.
On Saturday afternoon, police personnel from several police stations led by ASP (city) Hemraj Meena, allegedly raided Mr Tiwari’s house at Dharamshala area in Gorakhpur. They allegedly searched the premises and left without finding anything suspicious.
“The police team searched my house but failed to show any court order for the operation. The action was initiated to malign our image because we have differences with Adityanath. We staged a demonstration at the district magistrate’s residence to demand action against the cops who raided our residence,” he said.
ASP Meena, however, denied the allegations. “We had gone to the place looking for Sonu Pathak. We had come to know that Sonu Pathak was a frequent visitor to the Tiwari residence and knew Vijay Yadav, who is wanted in a robbery case. We did not enter Tiwari’s residence. We searched the quarters where the staff stay and an adjacent building where a few other employees live,” he said.
The police official, however, admitted that the police were not carrying court permission for the search.
He said that during the search, police caught seven persons and brought them to the police station for questioning. While six of them were allowed to go, Ashok Singh, who was allegedly carrying cartridges, was arrested.
The search was linked to Rs 98 lakh being looted from the cashier of private firm in Gorakhpur’s Khorabar area on March 13 and Sonu Pathak was said to be in touch with one of the accused.