'Illegally confined, not allowed to meet lawyer': Priyanka Gandhi on her arrest

Lucknow, Oct 05: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, arrested in connection to UP's Lakhimpur Kheri violence while trying to visit the site, released a statement claiming no notice or FIR has been provided to her even after her 38-hour detention and was not allowed to meet her legal counsel.

"Presently I am not going into the details of the completely illegal physical force used on my colleagues and me at the time of my arrest as this statement serves merely to clarify the continuing illegality of my confinement at the PAC compound in Sitapur, UP," Priyanka said.

"I have not been served with any order or notice. Nor have they shown me an FIR. I have not been produced in front of a magistrate or any other judicial officer either. I have also not been allowed to meet my legal counsel who has been standing at the gate since morning," the Congress leader added.

She said she has seen a portion of a paper on social media in which the authorities have named 11 people, including eight who were not even present at the time she was arrested.

In fact they have even named the two persons "who brought my clothes from Lucknow on the afternoon of October 4", she said.

Vadra said she has been placed under arrest as verbally informed to her by the arresting officer DSP Piyush Kumar Singh, CO City, Sitapur, under Section 151 at 4.30 am on October 4.

"At the time I was arrested I was travelling within the district of Sitapur, approximately 20 km from the border of district Lakhimpur Kheri which was under section 144. However to my knowledge section 144 was not imposed in Sitapur," she said.

"I was then driven to the PAC compound, Sitapur accompanied by two female and two male constables. Having been brought to the PAC compound, no further communication regarding the circumstances or the reasons, or the sections under which I have been charged have been communicated to me by the UP Police or administration until now-38 hours later at 6.30 pm on October 5, 2021," she said.