Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and four other senior party leaders on April 19 moved the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court challenging the validity of the first information report (FIR) lodged against them charging them with filming of a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in-house meeting and releasing a doctored CD on April 14.

In three separate petitions, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Shivpal Singh Yadav, Balram Yadav, O P Singh and C B Singh prayed for quashing of the FIR filed by BSP state president K K Sachan and stay of their arrest.

The petitions are likely to be taken up for hearing on April 21.

The petitioners contended that the FIR was politically motivated and filed with an aim to malign them.

SP national general secretary Amar Singh has already got stay from the court on his arrest in connection with the FIR.

The BSP has filed an FIR against Yadav and others for criminal trespass and defamation.

PTI