Despite Udham Singh Nagar and Dehradun police remaining on their toes in anticipation of the fugitive MlA Arvind Pandey’s surrender before court either in Rudrapur or in Dehradun on Friday, the MlA chose to remain elusive.
Dehradun police launched raids hither and thither, tipped that the MlA was hiding himself somewhere in the city. Vehicle checking drives were undertaken too. However, such initiatives have come a cropper with the MlA’s whereabouts remaining a mystery.
Aside from the Mahapanchayat that had decided on Thursday that the MlA would give himself up to law in Rudrapur on Friday, the MlA’s advocate had also filed an affidavit on Thursday in Rupradur court, stating the same. However, things did not happen the intended way as the MlA chose to remain at large.
His advocate filed an affidavit again on Friday, stating that his client could not have surrendered due to some unavoidable reasons. The court then fixed the date on September 7, it was learnt.
Additional forces were deployed at Court campus in Rudapur by the district police to ensure law and order during the proposed surrender, said additional SP Kamlesh Upadhyay on Friday.
Critics opine that failure to arrest BJP MlA Pandey indicates that police wilt under pressure when they are to act against political leaders. “They are contrastingly hyper-active when it comes to act against the common people over alleged cases registered against them,” one of them said.
That the Congress- led state government is reluctant to have the BJP MlA arrested soon is doing the rounds in the political circles. The longer he remains fugitive the stronger would be their point that the saffron rivals are taking laws with chaffs, observed a state’s political watcher.
However, facing flaks, the state BJP brass is under pressure to ensure that the MlA gives himself up to police at the earliest. The longer the matter drags the tougher for the party to take on the State Government on the law and order front.
The MlA went underground since the day a case was registered against him along with his dozen followers after they had allegedly assaulted Gadarpur Naib Tehsildar Sher Singh physically in Udham Singh Nagar on August 25.
He did not act on an announcement made earlier that he along with his supporters would surrender before police at Parade Ground, Udham Singh Nagar on August 28. Even the Mahapanchayat fixing Friday as the day of his surrender proved a fiasco.
Informed that Pandey would surrender in Dehradun court at noon, police stepped up security around the court campus. High drama unfolded after it was rumoured that the fugitive MlA having taken shelter in the residence of a BJP leader in Dehradun would come over-ground and meet the Chief Minister. But with things having not unfolded as rumoured, police brass are keeping their fingers crossed.