Police detained Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randahawa and other Congress MLAs on Monday for protesting against the Lakhimpur Kheri incident at UP-Haryana border on Monday.
Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi had asked Randhawa and Punjab MLA Kuljit Singh Nagra to visit Lakhimpur Kheri to ascertain the situation and meet the bereaved families. He also planned to visit the area himself.
The Uttar Pradesh government, however, denied permission to Channi as well as Randhawa to visit Lakhimpur Kheri in view of section 144 being imposed due to incidents of violence on Sunday.
Eight people were killed as violence erupted during a farmers’ protest in Lakhimpur Kheri on Sunday, ahead of a visit by UP deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya.
According to Channi’s spokesperson, in response to a letter seeking permission for landing and taking off of chief minister’s chopper, secretary home, UP government, had informed director civil aviation, Punjab, that it is not feasible to grant permission to the CM and deputy CM keeping in view the law and order situation in Lakhimpur Kheri.
Earlier, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra began a hunger strike after being detained in UP’s Sitapur district while en route to Lakhimpur Kheri. Congress leaders also staged a protest outside her guest house and raised slogans against the BJP-led state government over her “arrest”.
Meanwhile, Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu, along with several party MLAs, staged a protest outside Raj Bhavan in Chandigarh on Monday. Sidhu, other Congress legislators, including Madan Lal Jalalpur, Gurpreet Singh and several members of the Punjab Youth Congress, sat outside the residence of the governor Banwarilal Purohit and raised slogans against the BJP.
Chandigarh police detained Sidhu and other protesters and took them in a bus from outside Raj Bhawan.
The protesters were demanding the arrest of the son of union minister of state for home Ajay Mishra for his alleged involvement in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.
Of the eight dead in the Lakhimpur violence, four were travelling in cars, apparently a part of a convoy of BJP workers who had come to welcome the minister. They were allegedly thrashed to death. The four others were farmers, officials said. An FIR has been registered against Mishra’s son and several others.
(With PTI inputs)
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