Written by: Express News Service
2 min readAllahabadAug 24, 2013 06:09 AM IST
First published on: Aug 24, 2013 at 06:09 AM IST
Veteran VHP leader Ashok Singhal Friday left Allahabad for Delhi after the district administration reached his residence to put him under house arrest to prevent him from heading to Ayodhya. He was allowed to go to the Bamrauli airport,from where he boarded a flight to Delhi. Officials said police escorted him to the airport “for security purposes”.
Despite the UP government denying permission the yatra,party leaders have vowed to go ahead with it on August 25. Fearing a government crackdown,several VHP leaders have gone underground and plan to arrive in Ayodhya directly on Sunday.
On Thursday,Singhal arrived in Allahabad to immerse the ashes of his younger brother, who passed away in Delhi on August 17,in the Holy Sangam. He said the parikrama would go ahead as planned and any effort by the UP government to stop it would lead to problems.
Around 11.30 am Friday,a team led by Additional DM (City),Ashok Kumar,Superintendent of Police (City) and SP (trans-Yamuna) reached Singhal’s residence in Allahabad.
“We told him if he made a move towards Ayodhya,he would be put under house arrest. But Singhal told us he had to go to Delhi to complete certain rituals related to the demise of his younger brother. This was communicated to the top level of the state administration,which allowed him to go to Delhi,” said Kumar. Chief Development Officer (Allahabad),A K Rai,added,“A team had gone to his residence as a precautionary measure. He was allowed to go to Delhi,following clearance from the top level amid security.” VHP’s city spokesperson Pawan Srivastava said Singhal was still determined to reach Ayodhya.
“He (Singhal) said the administration has tried to arrest him several times but failed. He would reach Ayodhya,but anything in this regard will now happen from Delhi,’’ Srivastava said.
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