Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi, while addressing Prime Minister Narendra Modi through a tweet on Tuesday, said that her government has kept her in custody for the last 28 hours without any order or FIR.
Taking to social media, he further asked why the person who crushed the farmers was not arrested yet. He also posted a video of protesters being crushed by a car along with the tweet.
The Congress general secretary was taken into custody on Monday morning along with party MLA Deepender Singh Hooda and others while he was on his way to meet the families of those killed in Sunday’s violent district in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri. At least eight people, some of the farmers and a local journalist, were killed during clashes against agricultural laws on Sunday.
Violence erupted after at least one car allegedly driven by Ashish Mishra, son of Union Minister of State Ajay Kumar Mishra Teni, hit the protesting farmers in Tikunia village of the district, leading to the burning of two vehicles by an angry mob. intensified his movement.
Gandhi, who landed at the Lucknow airport on Sunday night, was initially stopped at her residence as she tried to leave for the violence-hit district. Later, a large number of police were deployed outside and there was a brief altercation. She left the house and soon left for Lakhimpur Kheri.
After some further altercation, the Congress leader and his party colleagues were detained near Hargaon on the Sitapur-Lakhimpur border and brought to a PAC training camp in Sitapur.
The Congress later shared a clipping of Gandhi cleaning the floor of a room in the guesthouse where he was kept.
“A picture of the struggle. Mrs. Priyanka Gandhi has been kept in custody at this guesthouse in Sitapur,” the Congress party’s media wing tweeted.
According to a Congress spokesperson, Gandhi, who is making a major effort to revive the Congress’s fortunes in the poll-bound state, has said that she will not go back without meeting the families and farmers of the victims. A large number of Congress workers spent the night outside the camo in support of him.