The UP Police have booked a journalist and two others for allegedly falsely accusing the secretary of the Ram Temple Trust of land grab in Bijnor district.
The Uttar Pradesh Police have filed 18 charges against the journalist Vineet Narain and two others on a complaint by Champat Rai’s brother Sanjay Bansal. Along with being a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader, Champat Rai happens to be the secretary of the Ram Temple Trust, who faced questions over these controversial land deals in Ayodhya.
The other two booked under an FIR, along with the Journalist Vineet Narain, are Alka Lahoti and Rajnish.
The three of them have been accused of “hurting the sentiments of crores of Hindus across the country”, by making false allegations against the VHP leader.
A few days ago, Vineet Narain in a Facebook post had accused Mr. Champat Rai of facilitating his brothers in the land grab in their hometown in Bijnor.
NDTV reported on Sunday that in the post, Narain had accused Champat Rai of helping his brothers grab 20,000 square meters of land in a cow shelter owned by NRI Alka Lahoti (named in the FIR).The post further claimed Ms. Lahoti had appealed to the CM Yogi Adityanath and had been trying to evict the encroachers since 2018.
Although, the Bijnor police chief has said that on the basis of a prime facie inquiry into the allegations, Champat Rai and his brothers have been given a “clean chit.”
Sanjay Bansal has claimed in the complaint that he searched for Narain’s phone number and called him in order to clear the facts of the case. However, someone named Rajnish picked up the call, misbehaved with him and threatened to kill him.
In the FIR, Bansal has accused Narain and the other two of “promoting enmity on the grounds of religion”, providing “false evidence”, “cheating” and “trespass” among other charges.
The police chief of Bijnor, Dr Dharam Vir Singh, said in a statement, “The local police are investigating Mr. Champat Rai is a senior leader of the VHP and a member of the Ram Temple Trust and the accusations against him by the accused are baseless and prima facie the accusations against his relatives are baseless too. We are ascertaining all the facts.”