Delhi Police on Tuesday here detained over 250 Congress functionaries and workers, including 57 MPs, for protesting against the questioning of party president Sonia Gandhi by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), officials said. A private motorcycle was also set on fire in central Delhi near Claridges Hotel on Rajesh Pilot Marg.
According to an official statement, police had prior information about the protest by Congress workers and supporters on Akbar Road in solidarity with their leader. Apprehending the risk to law and order, police sent a letter to the Congress headquarters informing them that a large gathering around Akbar Road cannot be permitted as prohibitory orders under section 144 CrPC are in force, Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order division, Zone-II) Sagar Preet Hooda said.
They were also informed that only All India Congress Committee office functionaries and staff would be permitted into the office, police said. To maintain the law and order, there were made “adequate police arrangements” in the New Delhi district, the senior officer said.
However, around 11 am, a large number of the Congress workers started gathering at various locations, such as Akbar Road, Man Singh Road, Vijay Chowk, and Janpath etc and staged a demonstration against the ED, police said. Some of the MPs of the Congress party, including Rahul Gandhi, started a march from Parliament to Vijay Chowk with other supporters.
When stopped by police, they started protesting near Vijay Chowk, Hooda said. The protestors were appropriately warned about the prohibitory orders in force in the area and repeatedly requested to disperse from there, but they continued the protest, thereby violating prohibitory orders, he said.
The protestors were, therefore, detained in order to maintain law and order in the area, he said. Some protestors were also detained from Akbar Road and other places. A total of 259 people, including 57 MPs, were detained under 65 Delhi Police Act, Hooda said.
Authorities were being intimated about the detention of the MPs and MLAs, police said. Police also said they were looking into the setting on fire of a motorcycle near Claridges Hotel.
They said they were searching for the owner of the bike and the reason behind its burning. The crime and forensic teams were called at the spot to lift the exhibits from there, they said.
The central probe agency Tuesday recorded Sonia’s statement on the second day of her questioning in the money laundering case linked to the National Herald newspaper. Sonia, who was questioned for two and half hours before lunch and rejoined after a break, had reached the ED office in central Delhi around 11 am with her Z+ armed security cover, accompanied by her children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.
(With PTI Inputs)
