178 Congress Workers Detained For Violating Orders Against Gathering

The Delhi Police, on Monday, detained 178 Congress party workers and leaders for violating prohibitory orders imposed under section 144 while holding a 'Satyagraha' at Jantar Mantar against the summoning of Rahul Gandhi by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), officials said. According to the police, a request was received from the secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), seeking permission to hold a Satyagraha on Monday here at the Jantar Mantar. 

The program was part of their ongoing demonstrations against the summoning of former party president Rahul Gandhi by the ED, police said. The permission was granted for a gathering of a maximum of  1,000 people with certain conditions, they said. Adequate law and order arrangement was put in place at the Jantar Mantar to avert any untoward incident, Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Sagar Preet Hooda said. 

The party supporters, when they were seen to have exceeded the permitted numbers, were directed to leave the area in view of the prohibitory orders in force under section 144 CrPC, and the violators were detained in order to maintain law and order, he said. Around 178 party workers and leaders, including Rajasthan MLA Ganesh Ghogra, have been detained under Section 65 of the Delhi Police Act, Hooda said. 

Another request was received from one Sandeep for permission to hold a protest on Monday at the same place against the ‘Agnipath’ scheme. Keeping in view the present law and order situation and the traffic reasons, his request was denied, the police said. All the same, protestors held demonstrations at various places in the New Delhi district despite the rejection of their request, in violation of the prohibitory orders, of which, the police detained 57 of the protestors, Hooda added. 

Police also said that some Indian Youth Congress (IYC) protesters had stopped a train at the Shivaji Bridge railway station near Connaught Place agitating against Gandhi’s questioning by the ED and pushing for their demand for a rollback of the Agnipath scheme. Sixteen protesters, including a woman, were detained as police tried to remove them from the tracks and the station, and were booked later, a senior police official said. The track was cleared of agitators by police and security personnel and train movement resumed after about half an hour, sources said.