Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi was arrested in a dramatic manner at Bhatta-Parsaul villages in Greater Noida late on Wednesday night after the Mayawati government decided to act against him. Mr. Gandhi, who had earlier staged an indefinite dharna in support of the farmers' demand, spent almost 20 hours at the villages. Mr. Gandhi said he would continue to wage a struggle for the common man. AICC general secretary in charge of U.P. Digvijay Singh, PCC president Bahuguna Joshi, Raj Babbar, MP, and other Congressmen were also arrested.
PTI adds:
Mr. Gandhi was later released capping a day of high drama after he slipped in unnoticed in pre-dawn hours to support the farmers agitating against the U.P.’s land acquisition process for a expressway project.
After a three-hour midnight drama of arrest and release, Mr. Gandhi was fiinally escorted back to Delhi by the U.P. police through the DND expressway and left at the inter-State bus terminus at Sarai Kale Khan a short distance from there bringing an end to a nearly 24-hour sequence of events.
Mr. Gandhi, who spent almost 19 hours at Bhatta-Parsaul, the epicentre of the farmers’ agitation, was arrested under Sec 151 CrPC at around 11:00 p.m. and were taken to the Kasna police station.
He was released on bail by the Uttar Pradesh Police and brought to Delhi at 2.15 a.m.
He was arrested along with Mr. Digvijay Singh, Ms. Joshi, Congress MPs Raj Babbar and other Congress leaders.
At the Kasna police station in Greater Noida, a Delhi suburb, Mr. Gandhi questioned the grounds on which he was arrested. “They are not showing us the documentation,” he said.
“Our fight against the Mayawati government will continue. We will be happy to go to jail on farmers’ issues,” Mr. Digvijay Singh told reporters soon after their release.
He wanted the National Human Rights Commission to look into the matter.
Mr. Digvijay Singh said the Congress would stage a strong protest against Mr. Gandhi’s arrest on Thursday.
At a late night press conference in Lucknow, U.P. Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh the situation in Bhatta-Parasaul was calm and attempts were being made to vitiate the atmosphere there.
The U.P. Cabinet Secretary said there were no prohibitory orders in force in Bhatta Parasaul since this morning as the orders were in place till only May 10.
Mr. Shashank Shekhar Singh said prohibitory orders were re-imposed in the area after Congress leaders sought permission from the State authorities to hold a rally in the village.
The Congress attacked Ms. Mayawati for Mr. Gandhi’s arrest with AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi saying U.P. has witnessed “the cruellest rule of several imperialistic regimes“.
“The U.P. government’s action in arresting Rahul Gandhi proves that Mayawati is digging her own grave,” Mr. Dwivedi said.
“If any sense of justice is left in the government, judicial inquiry is the minimum that the state government should order immediately,” he said.
