Priyanka Gandhi among India opposition leaders charged for 'disturbing' peace in Uttar Pradesh

A first information report (FIR) has been filed in Uttar Pradesh against 11 people, including Congress leaders Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Deepender Singh Hooda and the party’s state unit chief Ajay Kumar Lallu, for allegedly disturbing peace, ANI reported, citing the station house officer of Sitapur district.

Earlier on Tuesday, Priyanka said that she had been kept in detention in Uttar Pradesh for over 28 hours without an order or an FIR.M

She was detained on Monday while going to Lakhimpur Kheri to meet the families of four farmers who died on Sunday after violence sparked off during a protest against the Centre’s contentious farm laws. Eight people, including four farmers, were killed in the district.

The Bharatiya Kisan Union has alleged that the farmers were run over by a vehicle that was part of a convoy of Union minister Ajay Mishra. The farmers’ body claimed that the vehicle belonged to the minister’s son Ashish Mishra.

Priyanka was reportedly taken to a guest house in Sitapur district after being detained in Hargaon town.

Before her detention, Priyanka was barred from leaving Lucknow and placed under a house arrest. However, the Congress leader started walking from Lucknow and later got into her car. Videos showed her confronting police officers for attempting to take her into custody without a warrant.

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Speaking to NDTV on Monday, the Congress general secretary alleged that she was pushed and roughed up while being detained.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Tuesday said that Vadra’s detention was “illegal and utterly shameful”, ANI reported.

“She was arrested at 4.30 am, before sunrise, by a male police officer...She has not been taken to a judicial magistrate so far yet,” the former finance minister said. “Law and Order in UP seem to mean [Chief Minister] Adityanath’s law and Adityanath’s order.”  

Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti demanded the release of Vadra on Tuesday afternoon.

“GOI [government of India] first gets a docile media to berate Congress and lament lack of a viable opposition but systematically ensures they don’t discharge their duties by illegal arrests,” she said in a tweet. “We are a democracy on paper but clearly the grim descent into a banana republic has begun. Release Priyanka Gandhi.”

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Congress supporters staged protests against the detention outside the guest house in Sitapur and in other parts of the country.

Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut called for “joint opposition action against oppression” by the Uttar Pradesh government. In a tweet, Raut said that he will meet Congress MP Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday evening.

In another development, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Tuesday posted a photo of him sitting on floor at the Lucknow airport. In a tweet, Baghel said that he was being stopped from moving out of the airport without any order.   

Baghel also posted a video where he tells police officials that he was not going to go to Lakhimpur Kheri.

“Section 144 [prohibitory orders] are in place in Lakhimpur, but I am not going there,” he added. “Then what’s the problem? Why am I being stopped?”

After one of the officials tell him that there was a ban on large gatherings in Lucknow too, Baghel sits on the floor.