Lucknow : A court on Wednesday issued an arrest warrant for Swami Prasad Maurya, a day after he quit the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet on Tuesday.
MP-MLA Court Magistrate Yogesh Yadav here ordered the arrest of Swami Prasad Maurya and said he should be produced on January 24 for not appearing in the court despite a non-bailable warrant.
Advocate Anil Kumar Tiwari filed the complaint in 2014 quoting media reports that the then BSP leader, Swami Prasad Maurya, had said gods and goddesses should not be prayed to in weddings and that this had hurt the religious sentiments of the Hindus.
On November 22, 2014, the Magistrate summoned Maurya under section 295A of the IPCC for outraging religious sentiments and ordered a trial. He filed a revision against the order in the Sessions Court which was set aside on November 9, 2015.
When a warrant for arrest was issued by the Magistrate Court, Swami Prasad filed a petition in the High Court. A stay order was issued on January 12, 2016.
Recently, the Supreme Court nullified all stay orders of more than six months in the case of MPs and MLAs. t also ordered that the cases of a Magistrate trial should be seen in the lower court.
A non-bailable warrant was issued to appear on January 12. When Swami Prasad did not appear in the court on the appointed date, arrest orders were issued.
Maurya, who resigned from as a Minister, is expected to join the Samajwadi Party on Friday.