Ballia case: BJP MLA gets show-cause notice

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has served a show-cause notice to its Ballia legislator Surendra Singh, whose statements in defence of the main suspect in a murder case in the Uttar Pradesh district have embarrassed the party.

“He has been served a show-cause notice,” a party leader said on condition of anonymity without disclosing more details. Reports said BJP chief JP Nadda had spoken to BJP’s Uttar Pradesh chief Swatantra Dev, after which the notice was served on the MLA.

The BJP lawmaker’s defence of the murder suspect coincided with the campaign for seven assembly by-polls currently underway in the state. Opposition parties have begun targeting the BJP on the issue, the reason why the party chose to distance itself with the lawmaker.

Earlier in the day, the controversial lawmaker said he would keep away from Ballia for some days after being rebuked by the party leadership for defending his supposed aide Dheerendra Pratap Singh, who was arrested in connection with a shootout in the district.

“I would be staying in Lucknow for a couple of days,” Surendra Singh said without specifying a reason why he wanted to avoid visiting Ballia.

The development came as the court of the chief judicial magistrate, Ballia, on Monday remanded Dheerendra Pratap Singh to 14 days in judicial custody. Dheerendra Pratap Singh had allegedly shot dead a 46-year-old man identified as Jaiprakash Pal during a meeting on the allocation of two fair price shops in Durjanpur village of Ballia on October 15 in the presence of police and administrative officials.

The Special Task Force of the UP police arrested him from Lucknow on Sunday.

Surendra Singh was summoned to Lucknow on Sunday by state BJP chief Swatantra Dev and state general secretary (organisation) Sunil Bansal, who disapproved of his conduct in the case.

“The MLA has been told in plain words to keep away from the case and to not make statements,” a BJP leader said on condition of anonymity. The outspoken MLA admitted he had been asked by the party leadership to lie low, but refused to concede that his staying away from Ballia was connected to the arrest of his aide .

“Yes, I was asked not to make any statements in the case. See, all I wanted was to make sure that both sides were heard, that’s all,” he said.

“I told the leadership that all I wanted was that the accused be punished, whosoever they might be, but uniformly and fairly,” he said.

The BJP didn’t make any official comment if the MLA had been asked to stay out of Ballia so that he didn’t influence the probe. “He was summoned and snubbed by the party leadership,” was all that a BJP leader privy to the developments in the case said.

Surendra Singh had not only openly admitted that Dheerendra Pratap Singh was a BJP member, but had also approached the police, claiming that a cross-complaint by family members of the main suspect in the murder case be also registered.

On Friday, the BJP MLA said that Dheerendra Pratap Singh had opened fire in self-defence. He claimed that had Dheerendra Pratap Singh not opened fire, dozens of women of his family would have been hurt or killed.

On Saturday, Surendra Singh visited Revati police station in Ballia and demanded that a first information report be registered on an application moved by women in Dheerendra Pratap Singh’s family who, he alleged, were injured in stone-throwing during Thursday’s incident. He also took them to the district hospital and got them medically examined.

“I am carrying with me the medical reports of five women (Dheerendra’s Pratap Singh’s relatives) who were injured in the stone-pelting incident,” the MLA said before his meeting with the state BJP leadership on Sunday.

In a video message that surfaced on social media on Saturday, the accused claimed he was innocent and was being framed.

After his arrest on Sunday, STF officials said Dheerendra Pratap Singh claimed in a statement that his associates and he opened fire in retaliation when another group, led by a man identified as Krishna Kant Yadav, opened fire on them. He said Dheerendra Pratap Singh’s nephew Golu Singh and women members of his family were critically injured in the firing by the rival group. Golu Singh died of his injuries during treatment, the STF quoted him as saying.