Lucknow, June 8 : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath on Friday asked for details in a case where his Principal Secretary S.P. Goel has been accused of seeking a Rs 25 lakh bribe, an official spokesman said.
A Lucknow-based businessman has alleged that senior IAS officer Goel sought money to approve widening of a road to his proposed petrol pump. Adityanath asked Chief Secretary Rajeev Kumar to find out the factual position in the case.
The move came after Governor Ram Naik, taking cognizance, shot off a letter to the Chief Minister apprising him of the e-mail complaint the Raj Bhawan had received from businessman Abhishek Gupta, seeking help in getting the matter expedited.
In his letter, Naik says Gupta has claimed that since he was not yielding to the bribe demand, the IAS officer was sitting on the file. The Governor asked Adityanath to look into the matter at his level.
Meanwhile, the complainant was picked up by the police in the afternoon for interrogation, said Lucknow Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Deepak Kumar.
A complaint was filed against Gupta by BJP party office in-charge Bharat Dixit alleging that he was exerting pressure on senior BJP office bearers and the Chief Minister's Office to get favours, Kumar said.
"Following the complaint, the police has filed a case under Sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly) and 500 (defamation) of the IPC (Indian Penal Code) against Gupta," the SSP said.
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Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."