Former Uttar Pradesh minister Swami Prasad Maurya, who resigned from the Yogi Adityanath cabinet on Tuesday, stared at a new trouble as an MP-MLA court in Sultanpur issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with a case registered against him in 2014.
On Wednesday, Sultanpur MP-MLA Court Magistrate Yogesh Yadav ordered the arrest of Swami Prasad Maurya for not appearing in the court despite the issuance of a non-bailable warrant and asked him to be present in the court on January 24.
Advocate Anil Kumar Tiwari had filed a complaint at a Sultanpur court in 2014 claiming that in a media report it was said that Bahujan Samaj Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya had said one should not worship gods and goddesses in marriage functions and this had hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus.
On November 22, 2014, the magistrate had summoned Maurya under Section 295A of the Indian Penal Code for outraging religious sentiments. On his part, Maurya’s lawyer filed a revision against the order in the sessions court, which was set aside on November 9, 2015. When the warrant of arrest was issued by the magistrate, Swami Prasad filed a petition against him in the high court. In this, a stay order was issued on January 12, 2016.
Recently, the Supreme Court nullified all stay orders of more than six months in the case of MPs and MLAs. Along with this, it has also been ordered that the cases of magistrate trial should be seen in the lower court itself.
When the file came up for hearing in the court of ACJM-18, a non-bailable warrant was issued against Maurya to appear in the court on January 12. But when Maurya did not appear in the court on the appointed date, arrest orders were issued and he was asked to be present before the court on January 24.