Date:20/04/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/04/20/stories/2003042003031000.htm

National

Amar Singh fears for his life

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI APRIL 19. The Samajwadi Party general secretary, Amar Singh, today accused the Mayawati Government of making moves that "smacked of a conspiracy to liquidate him.''

Addressing a press conference here today, Mr. Singh said he had information that 10 alleged criminals had recently been illegally released in Aligarh and that they might be a part of the conspiracy to physically harm him.

Mr. Singh, who has `y' category security cover, said he had written to the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, for upgrading his security as he feared for his life under the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati, who has threatened to nab him from any corner of the country. He had received a reply saying that the matter was being looked into.Armed with a "stay order" against his arrest on a FIR lodged by the Mayawati Government, Mr. Singh said he would travel to Varanasi tomorrow. "If Ms. Mayawati arrests me, as I apprehend she will attempt to, then it will be contempt of court.'' Asserting that he had "never killed even a mosquito'', he said if anyone could prove that he was a criminal he was ready to go to jail or leave politics.

Mr. Singh had obtained a stay order against his arrest in the FIR lodged against him for alleged "trespass and doctoring CDs featuring Ms. Mayawati''.

He has been granted `stay' till May 16. Reportedly while granting him the `stay', the concerned Lucknow Bench is said to have observed that "in the prevailing situation even judges were not secure.''The U.P. Government has filed 137 FIRs against the former Chief Minister and SP president, Mulayam Singh Yadav, for alleged misuse of the CM's discretionary fund. Uttar Pradesh law has no provision for anticipatory bail. Mr. Singh asserted that as the biggest group of 150 MLAs who had got the people's mandate, the SP had every right to strive for power in U.P. "The Mayawati Government cannot scare us with FIRs and police cases. This is not politics; this is gangsterism. She cannot be equated with the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, who never slapped 500 cases in a day against her political rivals,'' he said.About the recently-held `Kshatriya rally' in Delhi, Mr. Singh said he had not distributed any sword at the function but was given one. "It was not a rally but a meeting of the office-bearers of various Kshatriya organisations which were feeling oppressed in U.P. after the arrest of independent MLA, Raja Bhaiyya and his father under POTA.''