Samajwadi Party leader and vice-chairman of the UP Khadi and Gramodyog, Natwar Goyal, was detained here on Tuesday evening for allegedly beating up a journalist and a photographer of a local Hindi daily.
Chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, taking cognisance of the incident, removed Natwar Goyal from his post and expelled him from the Samajwadi Party.
The police did not formally arrest the leader till the time of filing this report and efforts were on to broker peace between the two parties.
According to reports, the journalist and the photographer were reportedly taking photographs of a multi-storied building that is being allegedly constructed by the SP leader in violation of the rules.
Natwar reached the site with his supporters when the journalist and the photographer were there. They first abused the scribe and then pulled the two inside their site office where they beat them up and snatched the camera of the photographer.
As soon as the news of the incident spread, mediapersons gathered at the site of the incident and forced the police to register a complaint and arrest the accused leader.
After high drama that lasted for over three hours, a complaint against Mr Natwar Goyal was lodged at the Kaiserbagh police station late in the evening.
Mr Goyal was appointed vice-chairman of the UP Khadi and Gramodyog Board by UP minister for Khadi and Gramodyog Rajaram Pandey without taking approval from the chief minister in May this year.
Though the chief minister was reportedly irked over the appointment, he chose to ignore the same. Mr Goyal, who has interests in real estate, is known to flaunt his clout in public and has had run-in with the police in the past too.