Lucknow, July 17 - Police say they have arrested five people for setting afire the house of Congress state president Rita Bahuguna Joshi late Wednesday night. However, family members of the five allege the five were being framed.

According to police, the five -- Guddu Yadav, Shiv Kumar Singh, Inder Singh, Zameer Khan and Susajjit Tiwari -- were arrested near Joshi's house while trying to escape after setting the building ablaze.

'After getting the information, we reached the spot and found these men trying to run away from there. We arrested them in the early hours Wednesday,' inspector B.R. Saroj of Hussainganj police station, who also lodged a first information report (FIR) himself, told IANS.

However, none of the five have any criminal records. 'We are scanning their past and have not yet found any criminal history,' he added.

The five were booked under section 147 (rioting), 504 (intentional insult with the intent to provoke breach of peace), 506 (criminal intimidation), 427 (mischief and causing damage to property) and 436 (mischief by fire or explosive with intent to destroy house etc) of the Indian Penal Code and sent to jail Thursday afternoon.

Family members of the five accused said the police were implicating them in the arson attack.

'We came to meet my husband's brother-in-law Guddu Yadav Wednesday. However, my husband and Guddu had a quarrel with a neighbour, following which the police took them to the Cantonment police station. We also rushed there and waited since the morning only to know that they have been sent to the jail,' Pushpa, wife of Shiv Kumar Singh said.