As dramatic visuals pour in from the massive protests near the Congress Delhi head office on Akbar Road, Youth Congress president Srinivas BV was seen being dragged away by several police officers and stuffed into a bus full of detained Congress workers. He can be seen resisting attempts to ferry him away, yelling at the media cameras that the case against Rahul Gandhi is fake and politically motivated. He was eventually detained and taken away on a police bus.
"They should be ashamed of the way they behaved with women workers and senior leaders. This is political vendetta," he told NDTV on a phone call from inside the bus, adding that they didn't even spare Members of Parliament. "This has happened for the first time in the world. They should be ashamed," he added.
Four to five policemen tried to pick up the Indian Youth Congress head when he tried to cross a police barricade but he aggressively resisted attempts to detain him; a woman party worker can also be seen trying to pull him away from the police. As the police pushed him into the police bus, party workers could be seen pushing him back.
This comes a day after the BJP taunted Srinivas BV by sharing a video from yesterday's protest where he could be seen escaping detention by running away from a police vehicle.
The police and paramilitary personnel allege that Congress workers slapped them and refused to comply when asked to leave as section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) preventing assembly of groups of people was imposed in the area.
Top Congress leaders like Harish Rawat, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Gaurav Gogoi, and KC Venugopal were detained from outside the Congress office as they tried marching to the ED's office. Chhattisgarh's chief minister Bhupesh Baghel sat in the middle of the road to protest police action, though he was not detained.
Congress has claimed it wanted to carry out a peaceful "satyagraha" march but the Centre is using police force to stifle their voices of protest.
Many party workers have also been detained. Visuals show some of them being dragged and being manhandled by the police. Police and paramilitary forces have been deployed in large numbers around the party's main Delhi office. Several barricades have been placed to prevent movement towards the grand old party's Akbar road office.
Rahul Gandhi reached the ED office today for the second day of questioning. He was earlier at the Congress party office along with sister and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra amid supportive sloganeering by party workers. Several senior leaders, including KC Venugopal who was manhandled by the police yesterday, had also accompanied Mr Gandhi at the party office.
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