Police had to resort to using water cannons as Punjab Congress workers and leaders tried to break through the barriers near Punjab Raj Bhawan.
Police on Thursday used a water cannon against Punjab Congress leaders and workers after they tried to force their way through barricades while protesting the questioning of party president Sonia Gandhi by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering case.
They were heading towards the Raj Bhawan when police used the water cannon to stop them. Gandhi appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Delhi on Thursday. The probe relates to alleged financial irregularities in the Congress-promoted Young Indian Private Limited, which owns the National Herald newspaper.
Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly Partap Singh Bajwa, former deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and other senior party leaders took part in the protest. They had planned to move towards the Punjab Raj Bhawan but the protesters were not allowed to go.
Police had put up barricades outside the party office here to stop protesters from heading towards the Governor's residence. Police used a water cannon to prevent the Congress leaders and workers from going toward the Raj Bhawan. Later, the party leaders, including Warring, were briefly detained.
Senior Congress leader Partap Bajwa hit out at the BJP-led Centre, accusing it of “misusing” the central agencies against its political opponents. The way the current dispensation is "misusing" the central agencies, no other government had ever done, alleged Bajwa.
Slamming the Centre, Punjab Congress chief Warring said, “we are not scared of the CBI and the ED.”