A day after a farmer committed suicide at an Aam Aadmi Party rally at Jantar Mantar, Bharatiya Janata Party workers protested near the Delhi Secretariat demanding resignation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and compensation for the victim’s family.
Hundreds of workers led by Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay, Leader of the Opposition in Delhi Assembly Vijendra Gupta, South Delhi MP Ramesh Budhuri, West Delhi MP Pravesh Verma, general secretary Ashish Sood and senior leader Jagdish Mukhi gathered at Shahidi Park on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg before marching towards the Delhi Secretariat.
The police, however, had barricaded the carriageway well before the busy ITO intersection. The police had to use water canons to disperse the party workers - carrying anti-Kejriwal placards and raising slogans against the AAP leadership - when they scaled the barricade and tried to move ahead.
Scores of workers, including Mr. Upadhyay and senior leader Jagdish Mukhi were taken to the nearby police station in a bus.
Besides demanding compensation for the deceased farmer’s family, the party leaders demanded that a case be registered against the organisers of the rally as people there instigated Gajendra Singh to commit suicide.
“You continued your rally for 45 minutes even after the death of the farmer. This is a motivated murder and everybody responsible in this case should be booked under the charge of murder,” Mr. Upadhyay said.
“Not only did Mr. Kejriwal fail to discharge his political and administrative responsibility, he also committed murder of humanity by continuing his speech in spite of getting information on the dais about the tragedy,” he added.
