BJP's Amit Shah booked for 'revenge' remark, EC asks for speech tapes

Bijnore/New Delhi: Narendra Modi's close aideAmit Shah is in trouble for his "revenge" speech with an FIR being lodged against him by authorities on Sunday and the outburst under the scrutiny of the Election Commission.

BJP condemned the action of Bijnore district administration, saying the FIR was "not bonafide" and that it was a "calculated design" to communalise and polarise the election scenario in Uttar Pradesh.

A case has been lodged under various sections of the IPC and the RPA by the District Magistrate regarding some objectionable part in Shah's speech," chief electoral officer Umesh Sinha told PTI in Lucknow.

Shah was booked under section 153 of the IPC (inciting people) and section 125 of the Representation of the People Act (promoting enmity between different classes), he said.

The FIR followed a complaint by Congress yesterday which accused BJP's Uttar Pradesh in-charge of "creating animosity between communities" and said he has committed an offence under section 125 of RPA.

Poll authorities in Uttar Pradesh sent the CD of the remarks made by Shah in Muzaffarnagar--which witnessed communal violence last year--along with the report of District Election Officer to the Election Commission in Lucknow.

Sources said the Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer had on Saturday taken cognisance of Shah's statement and sought the CD along with a detailed report from the district authorities.

Shah is not a candidate for the Lok Sabha polls.

The statement has been sent to the Nirvachan Sadan—the headquarters of the Election Commission in Delhi, they said. The EC is likely to take a call on the issue at its meeting tomorrow, the sources said.

Union Minister and Congress leader Beni Prasad Verma alleged that SP and BJP were hand in glove with each other in communalising elections and sought a "ban" by the Election Commission on campaigning by Modi and Shah in Uttar Pradesh.

Condemning the remarks, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi rejected BJP's defence of it as "flagrant crude defence and justification of communalism" and accused it of mastering the art of "hypocrisy".

Shah triggered a controversy with his comment that the general elections, especially in western UP, is "an election for honour. It is an election to take revenge for the insult. It an election to teach a lesson to those who have committed injustice".