Rahul Gandhi arrested amid high drama, released

Greater Noida, May 12: Rahul Gandhi was arrested on May 11 by the Uttar Pradesh police capping a day of high drama after he slipped in unnoticed in pre-dawn hours to support the farmers agitating against the state's land acquisition process for a expressway project.

After a three-hour midnight drama of arrest and release, Rahul Gandhi was fiinally escorted back to Delhi by the UP police through the DND expressway and left at the inter-state bus terminus at Sarai Kale Khan a short distance from there bringing an end to a nearly 24-hour sequence of events.

Gandhi, who spent almost 19 hours at Bhatta Parasul, the epicentre of the farmers' agitation, was arrested under Sec 151 CrPC at around 11:00 pm. and was taken to the Kasna police station.

He was released on bail by the Uttar Pradesh Police and brought to Delhi at 2:15 am.

He was arrested along with AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh, UP Congress chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi, Congress MPs Raj Babbar and Parvez Hashmi, and other Congress leaders.

At the Kasna police station in Greater Noida, a Delhi suburb, Gandhi questioned the grounds on which he was arrested. "They are not showing us the documentation," he said.

"Our fight against the Mayawati government will continue. We will be happy to go to jail on farmers' issues," Digvijay Singh told reporters soon after their release.

He wanted the National Human Rights Commission to look into the matter.

Digvijay Singh said the Congress would stage a strong protest against Gandhi's arrest on May 12.

At late night press conference in Lucknow, UP Cabinet Secretary Shashank Shekhar Singh said the situation in Bhatta Parasaul was calm and attempts were being made to vitiate the atmosphere there.

The UP Cabinet Secretary said there were no prohibitory orders in force in Bhatta Parasaul since this morning as the orders were in place till only May 10.

Singh said prohibitory orders were re-imposed in the area after Congress leaders sought permission from the state authorities to hold a rally in the village.

Congress attacked Mayawati for Gandhi's arrest with AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi saying UP has witnessed "the cruellest rule of several imperialistic regimes".

"UP government's action in arresting Rahul Gandhi proves that Mayawati is digging her own grave," Dwivedi said.

"If any sense of justice is left in the government, judicial inquiry is the minimum that the state government should order immediately," he said.

PTI