Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu was on Wednesday arrested after he sat on a dharna demanding the Yogi Adityanath government grant permission to the buses arranged by his party to ferry migrant labourers to their homes, police said on Wednesday.
Senior party leaders Pradeep Mathur, Vivek Bansal and Manoj Dixit were also arrested, they said.
The bitter war of words between the Congress party and Yogi Adityanath-led Uttar Pradesh government over 1,000 buses the former promised to arrange for migrant labourers has snowballed into a big controversy with both accusing each other of playing politics and questioning the intent.
"A case has been registered against Ajay Kumar Lallu under various sections of the IPC and the Epidemic Act at the Fatehpur Sikri police station. Lallu was arrested on Tuesday evening, and he, along with other Congress leaders, was put in the Police Lines," Senior Superintendent of Police, Agra, Babloo Kumar said.
On Tuesday, Lallu and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's secretary were booked by the police after the state government said a list of 1,000 buses submitted by the party to ferry migrant workers contained registration numbers of some auto-rickshaws, cars and trucks.
Also, records showed that many of the buses in the list did not have valid fitness certificates or insurance papers, the BJP government said, accusing the opposition party of playing with the lives of workers.
(With inputs from PTI)
