UP: Cong leaders protesting ED summons to Rahul Gandhi taken into police custody

NEW DELHI,JUNE 11: Several Uttar Pradesh Congress leaders and workers were taken into custody by the police after they took to the streets here to protest against the questioning of senior party leader Rahul Gandhi in Delhi by the Enforcement Directorate in a money laundering case linked to the National Herald newspaper.

Party leader Anshu Awasthi, who was among those taken into police custody, claimed that around 1,000 leaders and workers were taken into police custody. However, he said that they were released around 5 pm by the police.

Awasthi also alleged that leader of the Congress Legislative Party in UP Assembly Aradhana Misra ‘Mona’ and senior party leader Nasimuddin Siddiqui had been put under house arrest.

UP Congress spokesman Mukesh Chauhan and leader Vishwa Vijay Singh were among those who were detained.

Meanwhile, state Congress spokesperson Ashok Singh in a statement said that the BJP is trying to stifle the voice of the common people by adopting an “oppressive policy”.

“The UP Congress leaders have expressed their anger over their house arrest ahead of the protest, which was planned for today,” he said.

UP Congress general secretary Sharad Mishra said that the Congress workers will continue to “fight till their last breath”.

According to reports from Meerut, some party leaders and workers from nearby places have left for Delhi to participate in the protest.

Former CLP leader Pradeep Mathur, who hails from Mathura, took part in the protest staged by senior leaders of the party in Delhi, sources said.

Vikas Srivastava, another spokesperson of the UP Congress, said that protests and demonstrations are the right of a political party in a democracy.

Despite all the restrictions imposed by the administration, a large number of Congressmen reached the ED office (in Lucknow) and staged a demonstration, Srivastava said.

-PTI