Uttar Pradesh Congress on Tuesday dismissed as “baseless” the cases registered against party workers following protests against Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Monday.
There were no scuffles, no vandalism, no obstruction of official work and no damage to police vehicles or public property. Despite this, during Monday’s protests against Gyanesh Kumar across various districts, serious criminal charges were filed against Congress workers. In Agra specifically, cases were registered under grave sections such as attempt to murder, voluntarily causing hurt and rioting. Rai alleged that police assaulted party workers during the Agra protest and filed fabricated FIRs invoking serious sections of the BNS, despite no such incident having taken place. “I challenge the government to examine CCTV footage from nearby homes to verify the facts.
Addressing a press conference, UP Congress president Ajay Rai said, “No worker engaged in any irresponsible behaviour. The government should review the CCTV footage to see if workers actually entered homes or if anyone was injured,” he said. “I challenge the government to produce the CCTV footage if it has the courage to do so,” Rai said at the press conference, which was also attended by national spokesperson Abhay Dubey, CP Rai and Priyanka Gupta. Rai said the Congress stood firmly with workers who had been jailed by the police on what he called false charges and would provide them legal assistance. He said that besides Agra, FIRs had been registered against Congress workers in Kasganj under seven sections, Saharanpur under eight sections and Gorakhpur under nine sections.
