Nearly a dozen supporters of Uday Pratap Singh have also been put under the house arrest that will last 68 hours till the end of Ashura procession on July 17
Jansatta Dal (Loktantrik) president and Kunda MLA Raghuraj Pratap Singh’s father Uday Pratap Singh was put under house arrest by the Pratapgarh district administration to ensure a peaceful Moharram in the city, police said on Monday.
Nearly a dozen supporters of Uday Pratap Singh have also been put under the house arrest that will last 68 hours (from 5 am on Monday to 9 pm on Wednesday) till the end of Ashura procession on July 17, they said.
Uday Pratap Singh’s supporters put under house arrest include Jitendra Singh, Ramakant Mishra, Bhawani Vishwakarma, Ravi Singh, Anand Pal, Hanuman Pandey, Kesri Nandan, Jamuna Maurya, Nirbhay Singh, Gaya Prasad, Mohanlal and Jugnu, the police added.
The cops said two platoons of Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), two inspectors, four sub- inspectors and 20 constables were on duty at “Bhadri Kothi” and its entry and exit routes.
Uday Pratap Singh, commonly called ‘Raja Saheb’, is the titular head of the formerly princely state of Bhadri. His son Raghuraj Pratap Singh aka aka Raja Bhaiya is a 7-time MLA from Kunda assembly seat in Pratapgarh district.
Circle officer (CO), Kunda, Ajeet Singh said Uday Pratap and his supporters try to organise a ‘bhandara’ (community feast) to mark the anniversary of a monkey that died in an accident near Hanuman temple in 2005 on the Moharram procession route in Sheikhpur Aashiq area under Kunda police station limits of Pratapgarh.
“As a precautionary measure, notices have been put up at the main gate of Uday Pratap Singh’s residence “Bhadri Kothi” on the orders of district magistrate Sanjeev Ranjan and sub-divisional magistrate Bharat Ram,” the CO said.“A police force has been deployed at the residences of all those under house arrest and the police force has been instructed to keep an eye on their activities,” he added.
In 2014, Uday Pratap Singh organised a community feast at the temple which is situated on the way to Karbala where Moharram processions are taken out. In 2015, there was tension among members of two communities on the 10th Moharram when the community feast was organised.
Tension again prevailed in 2016 following which Pratapgarh administration put a restriction on organising a community feast on the particular day. Uday Pratap had also approached the court for permission to organise the community feast but his pleas were turned down. Since then, Uday Pratap Singh is put under house arrest during the 10th day of Moharram each year.