A day after he quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Uttar Pradesh, rebel Other Backward Class (OBC) leader Swami Prasad Maurya was served an arrest warrant by a local court in Sultanpur for a 2004 speech in which he had allegedly asked Dalits and OBCs to not worship some Hindu gods.
The controversial comments made by him eight years ago, when he was a leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), found a new life soon after Mr. Maurya ditched the BJP, accusing it of neglecting Dalits and OBCs.
Mr. Maurya was due to appear before a court in connection with the case on Wednesday but he did not. The Allahabad High Court had earlier granted him a stay on a non-bailable warrant against him but that was valid only till January 6, a lawyer associated with the case told the media in Sultanpur. The next hearing is scheduled for January 24.
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Mr. Maurya had in 2014 asked people of the OBC and Dalit communities to not worship Lord Ganesha or Goddess Gauri during weddings saying it was a conspiracy by the upper caste dominated system to mislead and enslave them.
Mayawati, the BSP chief, had then distanced herself from the comments made by Mr. Maurya, who was the Leader of the Opposition at the time.
Mr. Maurya said he was yet to get a copy of the warrant but would respond to it legally. “I have full faith in the judiciary,” he told reporters.
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