The Uttar Pradesh Police on Monday arrested five persons for allegedly installing a hoarding that said “#ByeByeModi” in Prayagraj last week, The Times of India reported.
The banner showed a cartoon of Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding a liquefied petroleum gas cylinder priced at Rs 1,105.
The hoarding said: “You [Modi] have taken away lives of many farmers during Farm Laws Protest” and “Dreams of youth have been killed by contract jobs”.
Abhay Kumar Singh, Aniket Kesari, Rajesh Kesarwani, Shiv and Nanka alias Dharmendra were arrested for allegedly putting up the hoarding.
Singh is reportedly the owner of a printing press, Kesari is an event organiser and Kesarwani is a contractor. Shiv and Nanka are labourers.
The police have booked them under Indian Penal Code Sections 153B (imputations and assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 505(2)(promoting enmity between classes).
Deputy Superintendent of Police Ajeet Singh Chauhan said that the accused persons put up the hoarding with the help of a supporter of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
The supporter, identified as Sai, had allegedy given the accused men the contract for the hoarding. The police are looking for him.
Ahead of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national executive meeting in Hyderabad on July 2 and 3, a poster with the slogan “Bye Bye Modi” had been installed near the venue, according to the Hindustan Times.
The BJP, on its part, had put up a poster at its regional party headquarters with the picture of Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao and the slogan “Salu Dora, Sampaku Dora [Enough of your trouble, boss]”.
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