Rahul arrested in UP

Rahul Gandhi was arrested tonight by the UP police after he pledged full support to farmers fighting against alleged forced land acquisition.

“Rahul Gandhi has been arrested under Sec 151 CrPC (arrest to prevent the commission of cognizable offences) and will be presented before a Sub-Divisional Magistrate tomorrow,” said Inspector General of Police (Meerut Range) Rajnikant Mishra.

Gandhi was taken into custody from the dharna site in Bhatta Parsaul Village in a grey Tata Safari to an undisclosed location. The Amethi MP smiled to the large battery of media before getting into the vehicle, along with AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh and Firozabad MP Raj Babbar.

Gandhi, who was accompanied by Singh, had reached the site in the vicinity of Greater Noida in the wee hours today to pledge his support for the farmers’ protests. He had slammed the land acquisition policy of the Mayawati-led Uttar Pradesh government that triggered the protests in.

Gandhi gave the local police the  slip – a practice frequently used in recent times by the youth leader – and rode pillion on a motorcycle to reach Bhatta  Parsaul village near Noida.

According to Congress sources, Gandhi gave a patient hearing to the locals, who came out in large numbers to apprise him of police atrocities. Village elders gave graphic details of the “torture by the police” and how young men had been forced to run away from the villages.

Some of them also showed their injuries received during the clash with the police.

Gandhi had assured the farmers that he would try to get them higher compensation – the key demand of the villagers – and sat on an indefinite dharna to protest against Mayawati’s ‘misrule’.

The Congress party demanded a judicial probe into the incident of violence.