The Uttar Pradesh Police have arrested six people after a photo of a banner banning the entry of BJP workers in a police station went viral. The viral photo showed a banner put up at the entrance gate of the medical college police station in Meerut.
Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had tweeted the photo with a dig at the BJP government headed by Yogi Adityanath. “This has happened for the first time in these five-six years. The people of the ruling party are forbidden to come to the police stations. This is the lofty stature of the BJP government of UP,” Yadav had tweeted.
According to the news agency PTI, Senior Superintendent of Police Prabhakar Chaudhary confirmed the arrest of six people related to the banner controversy. “We have arrested six people, Sambhu Pehalwan, Sagar Poswal, Kuldeep Masuri, Ankit Chaudhary, Amit Bhadana and Amar Sharma–for the act,” Chaudhary was quoted as saying.
The viral photo had evoked strong reactions from netizens. One user wrote, ‘Do we accept such demeaning banners for BJP workers by our own police, where they are banned to enter police station in Meerut? Or is it a ploy to create rifts between police and BJP?”
Another user wrote, ‘Difficult to imagine such empowerment of SHOs, that too in western UP!”
“You are still in sleeping mode. This state is run by the most efficient administrator cum CM. Don’t worry. Please check your ‘ tototis’ before giving such comments,” wrote another user.