Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was on Friday detained near Varanasi by police when she was going to a village in Sonbhadra district, where 10 persons were gunned down on Wednesday by a village head and his men over a land dispute . Some villagers were also injured in the incident.
The administration has imposed restrictive orders for assembly, under Section 144 of the Indian Penal Code, in Sonbhadra.
While being taken away in a police jeep, mediapersons asked Ms. Vadra if she was arrested, to which she replied, “Ji”. She said, “No matter what they do, we won’t budge. We have only come here to meet the families peacefully.”
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Ms. Vadra said she did not know where she was being taken.
Earlier, Ms. Vadra, along with State Congress leaders, sat on a dharna in Narayanpur on Mirzapur Road, saying she was not being allowed to visit the families of the victims in Sonbhadra.
“We have been stopped. I am asking them to show me the order or law under which it is being done. I am telling them I will go only with four people [permissible assembly under Section 144]. I only want to meet the victims’ families,” she said.
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Ms. Vadra earlier visited the injured people at the trauma centre in BHU, Varanasi.
Arrest is disturbing: Rahul Gandhi
“The illegal arrest of Priyanka in Sonbhadra, UP, is disturbing. This arbitrary application of power, to prevent her from meeting families of the 10 Adivasi farmers brutally gunned down for refusing to vacate their own land, reveals the BJP Govt’s increasing insecurity in UP,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet.