The Uttar Pradesh government transferred the sub-district magistrate of Faizabad for releasing VHP activists who had been arrested for violating prohibitory orders and disturbing communal harmony and peace during the recent VHP yatra.
Mr Ram Sahay Yadav, who was posted as SDM Sadar in Faizabad district, was issued marching orders late on Saturday night for not taking senior officers into confidence and releasing 15 VHP activists on August 25, the first day of its yatra. While Faizabad district magistrate Vipin Kumar Dwiwedi and SSP K.B. Singh were busy controlling law and order in Ayodhya, the police produced 15 VHP activists who were charged of violating prohibitory orders, before the SDM with a plea for judicial custody, but the SDM apparently turned down the plea and released them, the sources said.