Former minister, 6 others booked for holding SP workers' meet in Uttar Pradesh's Gonda

Gonda: Former minister Vinod Kumar, alias Pandit Singh, and six people were booked under the Epidemic Act for holding a booth-level Samajwadi Party workers' meeting here, police said on Friday.

A meeting of booth-level SP workers was held in a city hotel on June 15 in which Vinod Kumar, MLC Mahfooz Khan, district unit president Anand Swaroop and hundreds of office-bearers and workers took part, said Inspector Incharge of Kotwali police station Alok Rao.

He said that prohibitory orders were in force to check crowding at public places due to coronavirus and added that on a complaint of Subhash Awasthi an FIR was lodged against seven named people, including these three, and hundreds of others unnamed people on Tuesday, he said.

Mahfooz Ali, however, termed the FIR "politically motivated".

He said that a meeting was held in the hall of a hotel in the presence of only 25 to 30 sector incharges, maintaining social distancing, and the FIR was lodged by presenting the photo of a meeting that was held before the lockdown.

He warned of 'Jail bharo Andolan' if the case was not withdrawn and any party worker was arrested by the police.