NEW DELHI, April 9: Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders who were detained by Delhi Police while staging a dharna outside the Election Commission’s office continued their protest at Mandir Marg police station on Tuesday morning.
AAP leaders, including Saurabh Bharadwaj, met the protesting TMC leaders who camped overnight at the police station.
The TMC leaders had met the full bench of the EC on Monday, demanding that the heads of the Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation, National Investigation Agency and Income Tax department be changed as they were allegedly acting at the behest of the ruling BJP.
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The TMC leaders later announced they were sitting on a 24-hour dharna outside the EC office. The delegation comprised Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien, Mohammed Nadimul Haque, Dola Sen, Saket Gokhale, Sagarika Ghose, MLA Vivek Gupta, former MPs Arpita Ghosh, Santanu Sen and Abir Ranjan Biswas and TMC West Bengal students’ wing vice-president Sudip Raha. The leaders were later detained by Delhi Police and forcefully evicted from the site.
Police said they released the TMC leaders on Monday night. However, the leaders stayed put at the police station through the night and continued their dharna.
“Today, they again came back to the police station. They are still allowed to go but they are not leaving the police station,” a police officer said.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Gokhale said the party leaders were continuing their protest at the police station.
“We 10 MPs & former MPs from the TMC started a 24hr peaceful dharna outside the Election Commission last evening… We were manhandled by Delhi Police, detained, taken around Delhi, and finally dumped at Mandir Marg Police Station.
“As we said – our protest is for 24 hrs. We’re all at Mandir Marg Police Station, where we were detained, silently carrying on our protest,” he said.
“Modi, Shah, & BJP are brazenly using Central Agencies as their campaign tools & going after the Opposition,” Gokhale said.
In another post, he thanked AAP leaders for their support.
While all TMC leaders sat inside the police station premises, Haque and Ghose, who had gone out briefly, were not allowed to re-enter. They sat on a dharna outside the boundary of the police station.
“I was here all night and had gone home in the morning. Now we are not being allowed to enter the police station,” Haque said.
“They’re saying we’ll not allow you to join the protest… My point is that a police station is a public place. If an MP is not being allowed inside, what about the common people,” he said.
Asked about the police statement that the TMC leaders were released from detention on Monday evening, Haque said, “We had announced a 24-hour dharna. They did not allow us to sit in front of the EC and brought us here. So, we are sitting here,” he said.
AAP’s Bharadwaj condemned the police action against the TMC leaders.
“TMC leaders went to the EC to demand that the attacks on opposition by agencies like ED, IT (department) and CBI be stopped. Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) is campaigning across the country every day while raids are being carried out against opposition leaders so that they can’t campaign,” he said.
The Mamata Banerjee-led TMC has been alleging that the central probe agencies have been targeting opposition parties ahead of the Lok Sabha polls at the behest of the BJP-led central government. (PTI)
