PRAYAGRAJ: A team of Colonelganj police on Monday arrested five persons, including owner of a printing press and an event organiser, on the charges of putting up a hoarding with the title "# Bye Bye Modi" near the Reserve police lines on Beli road in Prayagraj on Saturday at the behest of an alleged Telangana Rashtra Samiti(TRS)supporter.
The arrested persons were identified as Abhay Kumar Singh (owner of a printing press) of Kydganj, Aniket Kesari (event organiser) of Civil Lines, Rajesh Kesarwani (contractor) of South Malaka and Shiv and Nanka alias Dharmendra (labourers), both residents of Kydganj.
Deputy SP (Colonelganj) Ajeet Singh Chauhan said, "After scanning CCTV footages, police have managed to arrest five persons who had allegedly installed the controversial hoarding on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the city at the behest of a supporter of Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) who had funded them from Secunderabad, Telangana."
He added , "A group of unidentified persons had installed the controversial poster in the city in the intervening night of July 8 and 9 on Beli Road, following which an FIR under sections 153(B) and 505(2) of IPC was registered."
"We are also looking for the TRS supporter, identified as Sai, a resident of Secundrabad who had allegedly given a contract to these persons to install the controversial hoarding on Prime Minister at the city’s prime locations," he added.
The DSP also claimed that similar controversial posters were installed in Secundrabad in Telangana state on July 7 and a video has gone viral on social media.
Investigations also claimed that TRS supporter Sai had contacted the event organiser to send him the list of prime locations where the hoarding could be installed. Once the event organiser sent the prime locations of the city, the TRS supporter asked him to install hoardings at Beli Road and even paid Rs 10,000.
The controversial hoarding with the title "#Bye Bye Modi" was found installed near the Reserve police lines gate on Beli Road in the city on Saturday morning targeting the PM, leading to an uproar following which local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders contacted the police. The flex hoarding did not mention the name of the person who got it installed.
Some commuters and leaders of BJP’s youth wing Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) had noticed the hoarding installed by unidentified persons and removed it with the help of some policemen.
The hoarding showed the PM holding an LPG cylinder with a price tag of Rs 1,105. It also carried remarks like "You have taken away lives of many farmers during Farm Laws Protest” and “Dreams of youth have been killed by contract jobs (sic)."
Besides, the hoarding had a cloud bubble with the remark "Modi sir image graph growing day-to-day (sic)."
Police said that wanted Sai is a die-hard supporter of Telangana Chief Minister KCR Rao who had allegedly instructed these persons to install the hoarding and paid for it.
