NDA leaders robbed of mobile phones at petro hike protests

New Delhi, June 12 (UNI) The NDA leaders protesting against the petrol price hike may or may not have succeeded in getting across their message, but many of them certainly ended poorer after the rally having their mobile phones, purses and credit cards stolen.

Prominent among those who lost their mobiles phones included former Union Ministers and BJP spokespersons Ravi Shankar Prasad and Prakash Javadekar and Rajya Sabha chief whip S S Ahluwalia, senior BJP leader Pyarelal Khandelwal and Janata Dal general Secretaries K C Tyagi and Shambhu Srivastava.

Most of them realised they had been robbed when they reached the Sansad Marg Police Station after they courted arrest at the end of the rally.

The meeting had been addressed by NDA Chairman and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Leader of the Opposition L K Advani and NDA Convenor George Fernandes just across the road and in the presence of heavily armed police.

The thieves had switched off the sets.

The media cell of the BJP swung into action filing FIRs and getting the connections deactivated to prevent misuse. However the numbers stored in their mobile phones can't be retrieved and the leaders will have to start from the scratch on their new phones.

When a reporter asked if the BJP suspected the hands of the Congress in this episode, a senior leader quipped, ''We don't think they can organise such things. This is the handiwork of the lumpen elements. But we certainly suspect their (Congress') hands in kickbacks in Scorpene deal or Volcker,'' he said.

Meanwhile, the police said no complaint had been made or any FIR registered in this connection.

UNI MCN/AN LR BD1929