Lucknow ,March 28: Ajai Rai, an Independent MLA from the Kolasla Assembly constituency of Varanasi district in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested on Sunday for attempting to murder a local trader.
The state government has booked the MLA under the provisions of the Gangster Act, following which the local court has sent him to judicial custody for 60 days.
The MLA, against whom an FIR has been registered by the Varanasi police under Sections 147, 148, 504, 506 of the IPC and the Criminal Law Amendment Act, was arrested from his house in Lahurabeer locality in the Chetganj police station area. The Gangster Act was invoked against him immediately after his arrest.
Rai and five of his supporters have been charged with attempting to set on fire a local businessman, Brij Bhushan, who had been asked to vacate a house and shop that had been purchased by one of the MLA’s supporters. The businessman did not vacate the property, after which the MLA and his men tried to kill him by setting him on fire. The businessman has been hospitalised with burn injuries.
Rai, who has criminal antecedents, has been in the BJP and the Samajwadi Party, and he recently won a byelection as an Independent. He had joined the Congress as an associate member.
Another Independent UP MLA, Yashpal Rawat, and two of his aides have been booked for allegedly killing a man who had been accused in his father’s murder.
Rawat’s father, Sharda Prasad Rawat, a former minister, was shot dead some time ago, and Vijay Rawat was an accused in the murder.
Yashpal Rawat and his aides reportedly shot dead Vijay Rawat on Saturday and have been absconding since then.
The police has registered a case against the MLA and his men and a manhunt has been launched to arrest them.
Amita Verma
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India agrees to change dam design
Age Correspondent
Islamabad
March 28: India on Sunday agreed to change the design of a Nimoo Bazgo dam, Pakistani officials said, referring to the ongoing three-day meeting on water between officials from India and Pakistan in Lahore.
"While considering technical reservations by Pakistan, India has agreed to change the design of a Nimoo Bazgo dam," an official who attended the meeting said.
In the first round of meetings, Indian officials handed over the designs of the Chutak and Nimoo Bazgo power projects on the Indus.