Bhojipura's SP MLA booked for threatening CM: Police

Bareilly (UP) Apr 4 (PTI) Samajwadi Party MLA Shazil Islam and some other party leaders have been booked for allegedly threatening Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and making provocative statements against him, police said on Monday.

The SP MLA from Bhojipura assembly constituency, Shazil Islam, besides the party’s district unit vice president Sanjeev Kumar Saxena and others have been booked on a complaint by Anuj Verma, district in-charge of Hindu Yuva Vahini, Bareilly’s Senior Superintendent of Police Rohit Singh Sajwan told reporters.

The FIR has been lodged at the Baradari police station of Bareilly under sections 504 (disturbing peace), 506 (threatening) and 153A (making provocative statements with intent to incite riots), he added.

In his complaint, Anuj Verma accused Shazil Islam of targeting Chief Minister Adityanath in a function organized by Saxena for felicitating SP MLAs at Akash Puram in Bareilly.

In his complaint, Verma quoted Islam as telling his party supporters in the function that “if the voice comes out from his (Adityanath’s) mouth, our (SP’s) guns will not emit smoke but bullets”, said police.

Verma lodged the complaint against SP MLA and others on the basis of a video clip of Islam’s purported statement circulated by a news channel.

The Bhojipura MLA, however, has questioned the veracity of the video clip saying the news channel had doctored his statement.

In the felicitation function, Shazil Islam had also said, "Earlier (till 2017-2022), when we had a lesser number of MLAs, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath used to say bad things about the Samajwadi party in House.” “Except verbally abusing us, he used to mouth all wrong things about us. But we have now a good number of members and our national president Akhilesh Yadav too is the Leader of the Opposition. So if Yogi Adityanath uses abusive words, we will not sit silently. We too will give a befitting reply," he said.

He also said, "Our national president Akhilesh Yadav has announced that we socialist people will fight both on the streets and in the House against the government".

Addressing party workers, he had also said that there is no need to get upset or disappointed.

Targeting Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Islam said "the days are gone when it used to be his dictatorship. Now there is strong opposition in the House." Speaking to PTI, Islam later said, “A news channel edited my video and then made it viral. In the program, I had said that being a strong opposition we will give a strong reply on all things like a gun which emits bullets and not smoke."