CD case: UP govt recommends CBI inquiry

A day after opposition members disrupted assembly proceedings over a CD allegedly containing objectionable references towards the characters in the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, the Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday recommended a CBI inquiry into the matter.

Addressing a press conference in Lucknow, Chief Minister Mayawati launched a counter attack on the Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena alleging they were "behind the preparation and distribution of the CD".

"Since the name of a Bahujan Samaj Party MP is being dragged into the CD controversy, the government has decided to recommend a CBI probe into the matter," Mayawati said.

The CBI would probe the entire aspect of the case including who were the makers of the CD entitled Teesri Azadi, when was it made and where had it been distributed, she said.

Mayawati said the state government took action when the matter came to its notice and an FIR had been lodged in this connection and three persons had been arrested.

An FIR had been registered against those involved in the CD case and the TV channel which aired it, she said.

Outrightly rejecting allegations that the BSP or any of its MPs were in any way involved in the matter, Mayawati termed the allegations by the opposition against a party MP Lalmani Prasad as "born out of frustration following the inclination of the upper caste towards the BSP."

She claimed that the CD had been manufactured and distributed in Maharashtra where Congress is in power and the BJP and Shiv Sena has a significant presence and alleged that it is thus clear that they are behind the manufacture and distribution of the CD.