DEHRADUN: Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) leader Ravinder Jugran stoked controversy on Wednesday when he alleged that the arrest of Uttarakhand Ayurved University registrar Mritunjay Mishra was an act of “self defence” and not “zero-tolerance towards corruption” by the Trivendra Rawat government.

The vigilance wing of the city police had arrested Mishra on December 3 on charges of misappropriation of funds and financial irregularities during his tenure as the registrar.

Speaking with TOI, the BJP leader said, “Mishra’s arrest is an act of self defence and not zero tolerance. I had repeatedly raised the issue with the CM, but he did not pay heed. I also sent him incriminating documents running into over 1000 pages last year, but the CM did not take any action.”

“It can be presumed now that he was arrested only because of his association with Samachar Plus CEO Umesh Sharma,” he added.

Meanwhile, the BJP camp in Dehradun has distanced itself from Jugran’s remarks with senior leaders refraining to comment.

Mishra has been named as one of the key suspects in the sting operation case featuring property dealer-turned-journalist Umesh Sharma who was arrested for allegedly pressuring his employees to run a sting operation of chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat and other senior bureaucrats with the intention of blackmailing them.

