Ex-MLA, son booked for recording, uploading video of BJP legislator in UP

A case has been registered against a nagar panchayat chairman and his father, a former legislator, for allegedly making a video of a Bharatiya Janata Party MLA and circulating its manipulated version on social media to defame her, the police said on Wednesday.

The case was registered against Nigohi nagar panchayat chairman Manoj Verma and his father Roshanlal Verma under Section 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the IT Act based on the complaint lodged by Ashutosh Singh, the representative of BJP MLA from Tilhar in Shahjahanpur, Salona Kushwaha.

On June 12, the MLA reached the nagar panchayat office in Nigohi around 12 noon to listen to the grievances of the people when Manoj Verma told the MLA that she had no right to come there, the police said citing the complaint.

He even used foul language against the MLA and told her to leave the office, Singh alleged.

"He also recorded a video of the MLA without her permission, and circulated its manipulated version on social media to tarnish her image," Singh said in his complaint to the police.

For his part, Manoj Verma, in a letter written to the chief minister, said he was listening to grievances of the public at the nagar panchayat office when the MLA came there and asked the people gathered there to leave the room.

Manoj Verma alleged that Kushwaha then closed the door and told him to get up from his chair so that she can sit on it "according to the protocol".

He claimed that when he told the staff to put a chair next to his chair, she got angry, and "started hurling abusive words".

Executive officer of the nagar panchayat S Mishra said that when the MLA had come for inspection, there were no empty chairs, and "I asked the staff to put a chair next to the chairman, which was done."

Ahead of the 2022 UP assembly election, Roshanlal Verma along with former Labour minister Swami Prasad Maurya had tendered resignation from the BJP, and both had joined the Samajwadi Party.

Roshanlal Verma had won the 2017 elections from Tilhar assembly constituency in Shahjahanpur district on a BJP ticket.

In the 2022 assembly elections, he contested on a Samajwadi Party ticket, but lost to BJP's Kushwaha.