Delhi: 7 IAC members injured in clashes with police

New Delhi, Oct 21: Seven India Against Corruption (IAC) activists were injured in clashes with police near the residence of

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Pandit Pant Marg here today.

Around 100 IAC activists congregated outside Hooda's house at 1 p.m. Raising slogans, they accused the Haryana government of granting undue favours to Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, and nixing the probe into his alleged nexus with real estate company DLF.

Since the protest was announced well in advance, police had erected barricades near the Haryana CM's residence. However, the IAC members tried to break through them. Police first used water cannons but the protesters did not disperse. Subsequently there was a lathi-charge in which many got hurt.

Police then foiled an attempt by IAC members to take away the injured persons to the office of their leader Arvind Kejriwal in Kaushambi. IAC activists had a heated altercation with the police over this. As many as seven of the injured were finally rushed to the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital.

Later in the afternoon, Kejirwal visited his supporters in the hospital. Addressing a press conference here at 4 p.m, he rued that police had brutally thrashed IAC members without any provocation.

A group of young men from Haryana had gone to their CM's house but the police did not allow them to meet Hooda, Kejriwal said. Condemning "police brutality", the youths showed the assembled newspersons some of the injuries they had sustained during the lathi-charge.

Kejriwal alleged that the Haryana government has been harassing an official who was looking into land scams in the state. The reference was to Ashok Khemkha whose transfer orders were issued three days after the 1991-batch IAS officer ordered an enquiry into business dealings between DLF and Vadra.

The Haryana government avers that Khemkha's sudden appointment as Managing Director of the Haryana Seeds Development Corporation was a routine administrative action. On the other hand, he argues that 42 transfers in the last two decades is tantamount to victimisation.

Kejriwal cited Khemkha's case to emphasise his point that the Haryana government has been colluding with Vadra and DLF.

Even as Kejriwal was interacting with the newspersons, some of his erstwhile associates came to the venue of the press conference and charged him with misleading them. They said that Kejriwal does not concentrate on a single matter and merely raises one issue after another to remian in the spotlight.

OneIndia News