UP trader, who accused Yogi's secy of demanding bribe, held

The police on Friday arrested Abhishek Gupta, a trader, who had accused Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's Principal Secretary S P Goyal of demanding a bribe of Rs. 25 lakh hours before a press meet.

Gupta was whisked away by police personnel, who were in plain cloths, from his house in the morning for what the police said was ''questioning''.

The state BJP had lodged a report accusing Gupta of using names of senior saffron party leaders to ''exert pressure'' on the chief minister secretariat officials.

Controversy had erupted after state governor Ram Naik wrote a letter to Adityanath asking him to investigate Gupta's complaint, which was filed with him a few months back.

Gupta, in his complaint, claimed that Goyal had demanded a bribe of Rs 25 lakh to clear the transfer of land in his favour.

Gupta had sought to buy the land as it was located in front of the land he had bought for a petrol pump in Hardoi district, about 100 kilometre from Lucknow.

''Goyal kept my file pending as I refused to pay the bribe,'' Gupta said in the complaint.

As the governor's letter to the chief minister leaked late on Thursday night, the BJP went into an overdrive and lodged a report with the police accusing Gupta of using the names of senior party leaders to ''pressurise'' the officials.

Gupta had convened a press conference to put forward his point of view in the matter but was apprehended a few hours before by the police in a dramatic fashion.

''Gupta has been detained for questioning,'' Lucknow police chief Deepak Kumar said.

Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Akhilesh Yadav demanded a CBI probe into the matter.

''It is a serious matter... it should be probed by the CBI... corruption has increased manifold under the BJP regime,'' he said.