A 23-year-old, Abhishek Gupta was detained by the police ahead of his press conference at Lucknow’s Press Club after he accused, Uttar Pradesh CM’s Principal secretary of demanding a bribe of Rs 25 lakh in order to clear a land deal.

Earlier, UP Governor Ram Naik has written to the chief minister Yogi Adityanath complaining about Yogi’s principal secretary. In a letter written to the CM, governor alleges that secretary, SP Goyal has been demanding a bribe of Rs 25 lakh in order to clear a land deal. Whereas, Adityanath’s media advisor, denies such charges and calls it baseless.

The allegation that SP Goyal demanded a bribe, has come from a resident of Lucknow, Abhishek Gupta, who had sought permission from the state government to buy a Gram Sabha land for widening his petrol pump in Hardoi district. Gupta also claims that when he failed to arrange for the money asked by SP Goyal, he wrote a mail on April 18, and lodged a complaint with Governor Ram Naik.

The U.P governor pointed out the problem to the chief minister in a letter dated 30-April-2018.

योगी आदित्यनाथ अब क्या करें ? वे लगातार यूपी का दौरा कर रहे हैं।इधर उनके प्रमुख सचिव एसपी गोयल पर भ्रष्टाचार के आरोप लग रहे हैं।उन पर 25 लाख घूस माँगने के आरोप हैं। यूपी के राज्यपाल भी जॉंच चाहते हैं pic.twitter.com/QAQskD7GtI — Pankaj Jha (@pankajjha_) June 7, 2018

“Mr. Gupta says that the principal secretary to chief minister, SP Goyal, is demanding Rs 25 lakh to provide land for broadening of the main road and he is not able to set up the petrol pump due to delay in the decision on the representation. I am sending Mr. Abhishek Gupta’s letter to you for appropriate action,” said Naik in his letter to Adityanath, reports Hindustan Times

Meanwhile, according to the Indian Express, Adityanath’s media advisor, Mrityunjay Kumar, has denied such charges and went ahead to call the complainant fake. “The chief minister would write back to Naik,’’ he said.

Kumar also claims that Abhishek Gupta had been demanding government land, which is not permissible under any rules. “Government land can only be given for public utility and Gupta was informed about the same. He went on to make a fake complaint.”

According to some reports, previously, Prabhat Dikshit, the in-charge of BJP’s state headquarters, had written to Lucknow’s senior police superintendent seeking an FIR against Abhishek Gupta. He has accused Gupta of pressuring officers to get “his inappropriate works done”.

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