New Delhi: Lambasting the Uttar Pradesh government over party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s “illegal” detention, Congress veteran and former union home minister P. Chidambaram on Tuesday alleged the law and order in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled state seem to mean “Adityanath’s law” and “Adityanath’s order”.
“The police in UP seem to be not obeying the law but are carrying out Mr Adityanath’s law and Adityanath’s order,” he said.
READ: Priyanka Gandhi Arrested After FIR Filed Against Her & Other Congress Leaders For 'Disturbing Peace'
Condemning the alleged high-handed and unconstitutional acts of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath-led government and the state police, Chidambaram said that this was “grossly illegal and utterly shameful”.
Asserting the facts and circumstances concerning the Congress general secretary’s detention in Sitapur “conclusively establish that there is no rule of law in UP”, Chidambaram said: “Her arrest and detention are totally illegal and an abuse of power.”
“She was “arrested” at 4.30 am on Monday, 4th October. She has been detained in the PAC guest house at Sitapur. The District Collector and the judicial magistrate concerned are both stationed in Sitapur,” Chidambaram said.
“The arresting police officer told her she was arrested under Section 151 of the CrPC. Any person arrested under Section 151 cannot be detained for more than 24 hours, unless there is an order of the judicial magistrate under any other provision of law,” he added.
Underlining that she has been in detention for more than 30 hours and has not been produced before a judicial magistrate, Chidambaram said: “There is no order of any judicial magistrate. Her constitutional rights under Articles 19 and 21 have been grossly violated. Her arrest violated several provisions of the CrPC.”
The former union minister also pointed out that no woman can be arrested after sunset or before sunrise, adding the Congress general secretary was arrested at 4.30 am, “which is illegal”.
“She was arrested by a male police officer -- which is illegal. There was no memorandum of arrest and it was not served upon her and her signature was not taken - which is illegal,” he said in a statement, PTI reported.
Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh Police has justified its action and said that she was arrested after an FIR was filed against her and other Congress leaders for “disturbing peace”.
The SHO of Hargaon Police Station in Sitapur district said that an FIR has been registered against 11 people, including Priyanka Gandhi, Deependra Hooda and Ajay Kumar Lallu, for disturbing peace.
According to ABP News inputs, the Congress general secretary has been arrested under Sections 151,107,116 and the PAC guest house has been converted as a temporary jail for her.
The FIR stated that she was arrested at 4:30 am on Monday and not detained. The SHO of Hargaon Police Station had also sent challan 151 to the magistrate after that.
This comes after the Congress general secretary shared back-to-back tweets calling out the Centre and the state government for detaining the opposition leaders and stopping them from visiting the Lakhimpur violence site where eight people, including four farmers, died.
The Uttar Pradesh government has restricted everyone to visit the site as Section 144 had been imposed in the area on Sunday night.
The Congress workers have been holding a massive sit-in protest outside the Sitapur PAC guest house where she was detained earlier on Monday.
The Congress general secretary was detained in Sitapur while she was on her way to Lakhimpur Kheri to meet the family members of the deceased farmers.
The Congress party had shared several videos on Twitter where she can be seen asking questions to the cops for not allowing her to visit the violence site.