Samajwadi Party MLA and supporters protests after his 'illegal' building is demolished, detained

A team of Lucknow Development Authority (LDA) on Thursday demolished part of an "illegal" building of an MLA of the ruling Samajwadi Party, situated close to the chief minister's residence, triggering protests from him and his supporters.

As soon as the news reached MLA Rampal Yadav, he along with his supporters reached the spot and protested the move leading to a clash among between them and the police. The police had to later resort to lathicharge to disperse the crowd. The MLA and a number of his supporters were detained and taken to police lines.

"They have been detained and we are taking them to police lines. One of the supporters had taken out a revolver during the protests," SSP, Rajesh Kumar Pandey said.

The LDA team had reached the site in Jiamau locality to demolish the MLA's complex, constructed "flouting" the LDA norms, this afternoon and bulldozed a part of it in the presence of heavy police force and district administration officials.

The complex is "illegal" and action at our end is likely to continue till early morning as work on removing the structure, used for installing advertisements atop the building, was on till late in the night, an LDA official said.

Meanwhile, part of a hotel, owned by the same MLA in Sitapur was also "demolished" there as its was "against norms", officials said.

Rampal, the legislator from Biswan seat of Sitapur, was suspended from the party during Panchayat polls after he fielded his son Jitendra for the post of district panchayat chairman against his party's official candidate. Jitendra won the election. However, after elections, his suspension was revoked.