MP Nirupam in bribery row, courts arrest

Congress MP Sanjay Nirupam has been accused of bribing voters again. Activists from the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) have alleged that Nirupam distributed cash and liquor in Abhilash Nagar and Laljipada slums in Kandivli (West) late evening on Tuesday.

The slums fall in the Charkop assembly constituency, where Congress candidate Bharat Parekh is locked in a tough fight against BJP’s Yogesh Sagar. MNS’s Deepak Desai is being considered a dark horse in the race.

Similar complaints had been made against Nirupam during the Lok Sabha elections. Nirupam refuted the charges as baseless. “I visited the slum after campaign rounds ended on Tuesday to meet a Congress supporter. I had come to visit him after being informed that a senior Congress worker from the area was threatening people against supporting Parekh’s candidature,” Nirupam said.

A scuffle broke out between the Congress workers and activists from the other parties, who objected to Nirupam and Parekh’s presence in the slum post midnight. An alcohol bottle was found in one of the vehicles, which Nirupam claimed belonged to a party worker. A fight broke out between supporters of the two sides thereafter.

Nirupam and Parekh, however, had to court arrest after being booked under charges of unlawful assembly and rioting. They were later released after furnishing a cash surety of Rs950 each.