12.66 % of polling in first 2 hrs in 8 seats of UP
Voters were seen queueing up in front of their booths from 6 am onwards whereas the polling started at 7am.
Amid the nationwide lockdown, nearly 4,100 people have been booked for violating the lockdown rules in Kanpur. These are the devotees of Shobhan Sarkar, the ‘gold digger’ saint who died on Wednesday.
Thousands thronged the Sunhaura ashram in the Chaubeypur area to pay homage to the saint who was laid to rest on Thursday.
The videos of the event have gone viral on the social media. Several political leaders can be seen attending the last rites of Shobhan Sarkar, who wielded a considerable clout in the region.
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“We tried to prevent the crowds but could not stop them from reaching the ashram. We made public announcements that only 20 people are allowed in cremation/funeral but no one paid heed. We have booked 4,100 in three cases of lockdown violation and we will identify them through video footage,” said Chaubeypur Station House Officer (SHO) Vinay Tiwari.
According to the SHO, the first FIR has been registered in Sunoda Ghat against 2,000 people and the second at Bandi Mata against 1,200 people. The third case against 900 people has been lodged at Bela Road.
Shobhan Sarkar, also known as Suryabhan Tiwari, was a self-styled god-man from the Shobhan village in Shivali area of Kanpur.
Sarkar came in news in October 2013, when he claimed that he had dreamt that a gold reserve of 1,000 tonnes was buried under the palace of Rao Ram Baksh Singh, a 19th century chieftain in Unnao’s Daundia Khera.
An order was issued to excavate the site a few days later.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) teams started digging in search of the gold and thousands of people thronged the area to witness the emergence of gold.
The operation was however, called off after several days of digging when no trace of gold was found in the area.
After this incident, Shobhan Sarkar lost much of his spiritual sheen, although this did not deter many of his devotees and they kept on following him.
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