Activist Yogendra Yadav was dragged by policemen this morning as he tried to speak to the media
Activist Yogendra Yadav, who spent the night in police custody after being detained late last night from a farmer protest, has now been arrested along with 90 others. He was dragged by policemen this morning as he tried to speak to the media.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, his former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) colleague, tweeted: "I strongly condemn the treatment meted out to Yogendraji by Delhi police. They were protesting peacefully. It is their fundamental right."
The 51-year-old activist, who was expelled from the ruling party earlier this year, has alleged in tweets that he was "beaten up, manhandled" at the police station. Posting a picture of himself with a torn sleeve as proof of his allegations, he said,
Senior Delhi Police officer MK Meena said his force had acted legally. "There was nothing wrong in the action we took," he said.
Mr Yadav, who founded the Swaraj Abhiyan along with lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan, alleged that he had rushed to the protest site after learning about a police crackdown on farmers who, he said, were holding a "peaceful" protest.
"We found out just now that police has tried to stop our hal (ploughshare) satyagraha with heavy force," he told reporters.
Mr Yadav alleged that he was later bundled into a police van along with other demonstrators and taken to the police station.
Mr Yadav has been leading a protest by farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan against the government's proposal to change the way farm land is acquired for infrastructure projects.
They had led a 'tractor protest' near the Delhi border on Sunday night, where police had prevented the tractors from entering the city. The protesters had continued on to Jantar Mantar in the heart of New Delhi.