New Delhi: The Congress leaders and workers continued to stage protests on the third day against the questioning of Rahul Gandhi by the Enforcement Directorate with police action against them getting stricter so much so that a female Lok Sabha member of parliament was dragged and her clothes torn.
Congress Lok Sabha MP from Tamil Nadu’s Karur, Jothi Mani, said police behaved "brutally" with her and other female Congress leaders and workers. In a video she shared on Twitter while police were taking her to an "unidentified location", the MP addressed the Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla and pointed out how police carried her and other women "like a criminal".
"Speaker sir, this is Member of parliament Jothi Mani from Tamil Nadu. Delhi police have brutally behaved with us yesterday and today as well. They have brutally assaulted us. They tore my clothes like this. This is happening to the Lok Sabha member of parliament. They removed my shoes and carried me like a criminal. Now they are taking us to an unknown location for the past one hour. We are dying for water but they are not allowing us to even buy water. We are 7 to 8 women in this bus...," she was seen narrating her ordeal in the video.
Congress General Secretary K C Venugopal, reacting to the video, wrote: "Brutally attacked, clothes torn, carried like a criminal. This is how Delhi police treated a peoples representative, a member of parliament. Is this how the police should behave? Is this how a woman, a member of parliament should be treated?" Earlier in the day, the Congress also alleged that some Delhi Police personnel forcibly entered its headquarters and beat-up party workers and leaders on Wednesday.
The party demanded that an FIR for “criminal trespass” be registered, the erring police personnel be suspended and disciplinary action initiated against them. “In an act of absolute goondaism perpetuated by the Delhi Police at the instance of the Modi government, the police today forcibly entered the national headquarters of the Congress here and beat up party workers and leaders. This is patently criminal trespass. The goondaism of Delhi Police and Modi government has reached its zenith,” Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters.
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He said the party’s state units would stage silent protests Wednesday evening and would gherao Raj Bhawans across the country Thursday morning against the police action. The Congress staged vociferous protests in the national capital on the third day of Rahul Gandhi’s questioning by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case.
The police had cordoned off areas around the AICC headquarters and barricaded it with increased police strength. Many party workers were picked by the police and lodged in police stations across Delhi. “We are protesting peacefully in a Gandhian way but such kind of behaviour and goondaism are unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” Surjewala said.
“Let all the police officers who are acting as puppets of Modi government in order to please their masters know that this will not go unpunished. We will remember and suitable action, both civil and criminal, will be taken,” he said. He demanded that an FIR be lodged against the officers of Delhi Police who “committed criminal trespass by forcibly entering” the headquarters of the Congress party, they be suspended and disciplinary inquiry initiated against them.
“Tomorrow, the Congress has decided to gherao all Raj Bhawans across India in protest against this action of the police, and the designed deception and suppression of the voice of Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party, who continue to champion the voice of the poor, the downtrodden and common people,” Surjewala said. These voices cannot be suppressed by the “puppet” ED, he said.
