The chief minister and his staff are safe and will be travelling to Lucknow by another aircraft, the Varanasi District Magistrate further added. The Chief Minister had come to Varanasi on Saturday and had paid obeisance at Kashi Vishwanath temple, besides holding a review meeting.
Meanwhile, in another development, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister on Saturday hailed as "the victory of truth" the Supreme Court order upholding the clean chit to Narendra Modi in the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat.
Adityanath took to Twitter to share, "the clean chit given by the Honourable Supreme Court to the prime minister in the Gujarat riots is a declaration of the success and victory of truth. The conspirators should tender a public apology to the people of the country."
He also referred to the 'Mahabharata' and said "The Shakunis decorated the 'Lakshagriha' against the truth but the truth came out safely." The Supreme Court had on Friday upheld a Special Investigation Team's (SIT) clean chit to then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi and 63 others in the 2002 riots in the state and dismissed a plea by slain Congress leader Ehsan Jafri's wife Zakia Jafri.
A three-judge bench had upheld the magistrate's order rejecting Zakia Jafri's protest petition against the closure report filed by the SIT in 2012. The bench said her plea was devoid of merit. She had alleged a larger conspiracy in the 2002 Gujarat riots. Congress leader and former MP Ehsan Jafri was among the 68 people killed at Ahmedabad's Gulberg Society during violence on February 28, 2002, a day after the Godhra train burning. Zakia Jafri had challenged the SIT's clean chit to 64 people, including Modi who was Gujarat chief minister in 2002.
(With inputs from agencies)
