'Illegal physical force used on me, my colleagues': Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on UP
Gandhi was stopped from reaching Lakhimpur Kheri, where eight people were killed as violence broke out after a car hit protesting farmers.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra alleged on Tuesday that the Uttar Pradesh police used illegal physical force on her and didn’t allow her to meet legal counsel who had been standing at the gate of the guest house in Sitapur since Tuesday morning. The Congress general secretary further alleged that the cops didn’t serve her any order or notice and no copy of the FIR was shared with her.
Gandhi was stopped from reaching Lakhimpur Kheri, where eight people were killed as violence broke out after a car hit protesting farmers. Farmers alleged that the car belonged to a convoy of union minister of state for home Ajay Kumar Mishra’s son.
Narrating the series of developments since she was stopped on her way to Lakhimpur Kheri on Monday evening, Gandhi said she saw on social media that the cops have named 11 people but added that “8 of them were not even present at the time I was arrested. In fact, they have even named two persons who brought my clothes from Lucknow on the afternoon of October 4.”
“I have not been produced in front of a magistrate or any other judicial officer either. I have also not been allowed to meet my legal counsel who has been standing at the gate since morning. Presently I am not going into the details of the completely illegal physical force used on my colleagues and me at the time of my arrest,” she said.
According to the Congress leader, she was “verbally informed” by DCP Piyush Kumar Singh, CO City, Sitapur, that she had been arrested under section 151 on October 4. “At the time I was arrested I was travelling within the district of Sitapur, approximately 20 kilometres from the border of district Lakhimpur Kheri which was under section 144, however, to my knowledge, section 144 was not imposed in Sitapur.”
Arguing that she didn’t violate section 144, the Congress leader pointed out that she was travelling in a single-vehicle with four other persons and “No security car or congress workers other than the four persons accompanying me were with me.”