Noida: Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were Thursday detained by the Uttar Pradesh police. They were stopped on the Yamuna Expressway in Greater Noida while walking towards Hathras to meet the rape victim’s family. Sources said Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were taken away in a police jeep and kept in a guest house for sometime after which they were released. They are now headed back towards Delhi escorted by the police, they said.
Rahul also fell down in the scuffle after police tried to stop him and his supporters from proceeding on the Yamuna Expressway near the Jewar toll plaza. Pictures of the incident were shared by the party. The Congress had said that the Gandhis were arrested by the police.
“Shri Rahul Gandhi, Smt Priyanka Gandhi and senior Congress leaders have been arrested by the UP police,” the Congress said on Twitter, using the hashtag ‘JusticeForIndiasDaughters’.
Priyanka also alleged that the police used lathis on the Congress workers and many of them were injured.
Rahul had earlier questioned senior UP cops under which law was he being stopped as all he wanted was to walk alone towards Hathras to meet the rape victim’s family.
“Can you tell me under which law can you stop me from marching towards Hathras,” he asked the police personnel. “I want to go alone to Hathras and on what basis can you arrest me,” he added.
The cops then told him that he had violated Section 188 of the IPC of disobeying orders promulgated by the government during the pandemic.
Rahul also alleged that in India today only RSS people and Prime Minister Narendra Modi can move around. “In today’s India, only Modi can walk or travel by air. No one else can,” the former party president added.
In a tweet in Hindi, he earlier said, “In times of sorrow, loved ones are not left alone. It is Jungle Raj in UP that meeting a family in mourning also scares the government. Do not be so afraid chief minister.”
The 19-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly raped at a village in Hathras by four men September 14. After her condition deteriorated, she was referred to the Delhi’s Safdarjung hospital where she breathed her last Tuesday. She was cremated in the early hours of Wednesday, with her family alleging the local police forced them to conduct the last rites in the dead of the night.
Priyanka said they were repeatedly stopped from going to Hathras. “When we all started our march on foot with Rahul ji, we were repeatedly stopped and lathis were rained on us in a barbaric manner. Many workers were injured. But our intention is clear,” she said.
“The sticks of an egotistical government cannot stop us. I wish these lathis were used by this police while standing in defence of Hathras’s Dalit daughter,” she said in a tweet in Hindi.