JOIN USA former MP against whom a local court in UP had issued a non-bailable warrant 17 years ago and whom the police had been claiming to be non-traceable, surrendered in the court on Monday and was sent to jail.
Police had been claiming that Banwari Lal Kanchal, a traders’ leader, was not traceable since the warrant was issued in 1997, but he had since became a Rajya Sabha member for Samajwadi Party, completed his term and joined the rival Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Kanchal was charged with abusing and assaulting a team of Income Tax officers who were surveying a trader’s office at Aminabad area in Lucknow.
Kanchal also alleged to have torn up papers brought by the I-T team for the survey, forcing them to return without completing the work.
He failed to show up at the court despite a summons and did not turn up when the court subsequently issued the non-bailable warrant.
Despite police’s claims that they could not trace him, Kanchal was attending business at the Upper House and was part of several traders agitations in the state.
The BSP, which he joined after leaving the SP, expelled him. Kanchal was at the forefront of an agitation against a leading private enterprise when it started a retail business here during Mayawati’s tenure as chief minister.