Senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury led a delegation of Congress leaders who met Lok Sabha Speaker Om Prakash Birla on Thursday and apprised him of the alleged manhandling and violence meted out to them by the Delhi Police while protesting against Rahul Gandhi’s deposition before the Enforcement Directorate in the National Herald case on Wednesday. The Congress has alleged that police personnel entered the premises of the Congress headquarters and beat up party workers. The Delhi Police has, however, denied the charge.
“We told the Speaker in detail, the manner in which we’ve been subjected to atrocities and violence. Speaker listened to us attentively. We spoke about Delhi Police officers who barged into the AICC office and attacked our MPs and workers in a pre-planned manner,” Chowdhury told reporters after the meeting with the Lok Sabha Speaker.
Chowdhury further alleged that Congress MPs and workers were treated as “terrorists” inside the police station. “Even at Police Stations, Delhi Police behaved with Congress MPs as if our MPs and workers are terrorists. Rahul Gandhi was called for three consecutive days for 10-12 hours long questioning. We don’t object to it. We just want to say that don’t use vendetta and violent politics,” Chowdhury said.
The Delhi police had detained nearly 800 Congress workers as massive protests broke out in front of the ED office and the party headquarters in the national capital. The police, while denying allegations of high-handedness against them, said that the protesters didn’t have any permission to conduct the protests and had also violated the Supreme Court’s set of guidelines for protests.
“Many people threw barricades at police near the AICC office, so there might’ve been a scrimmage. But police didn’t go inside the AICC office and use lathi charge. Police are not using any force. We will appeal to them to coordinate with us,” SP Hooda, Special CP (Law and Order) told news agency ANI.
Among several leaders, Sachin Pilot was detained amid protests, while P Chidambaram claimed that Chowdhury was roughed up by the police on Wednesday morning and it was caught on camera. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor took to Twitter and shared a video of a woman Congress MP who was allegedly manhandled by the Delhi police.
“We were just entering the party office and for no reason we were just shoved into a bus and taken to a police station and we don’t know what next they plan to do with us,” Pilot was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.