Lok Sabha leader and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other party leaders were sent back to Delhi from the Ghazipur border. On the way to violence-hit Sambhal, the police stopped him at Ghazipur border. He said that he was ready to go alone with the police but he was not allowed to do so.
“This is my constitutional right as the leader of the opposition. I should have been allowed to do this,” he said.
#WATCH Lok Sabha LoP and Congress MPs Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other party leaders sent back to Delhi from the Ghazipur border.
They were stopped by Police at the Ghazipur border on the way to violence-hit Sambhal. pic.twitter.com/qozEyL8QKs
— ANI (@ANI) December 4, 2024
Congress’s Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who was accompanying Rahul Gandhi, said, “Rahul ji holds a constitutional post and has constitutional rights. He should be allowed to meet the families of the victims.”
Due to prohibitory orders in force in Sambhal, opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was stopped at the Ghazipur border on Wednesday while going to the district. Rahul Gandhi said in Ghaziabad, “I am ready to go to Sambhal alone with the police but I am not being allowed to do so.”
Priyanka Gandhi said, “Whatever happened in Sambhal is wrong. Rahul Gandhi is the leader of the opposition, he has constitutional rights and he cannot be stopped like this. It is his constitutional right to be allowed to meet the victims.” He also said that he will go alone with the UP Police, but the situation in Uttar Pradesh is such that they cannot handle it. Why do they say arrogantly that they maintained law and order? Have you taken it?”
Rahul Gandhi, his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other senior Congress leaders reached Ghazipur border in the morning, where heavy police force was deployed and barricades were put up to prevent them from entering Sambhal.
Restrictions under Section 163 (power to issue orders in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehensive danger) of the Indian Civil Defense Code (BNSS), which were scheduled to expire on Sunday, have now been extended till December 31 in Sambhal.
Sambhal District Magistrate Rajendra Pensia on Tuesday wrote to the police commissioners of Gautam Buddha Nagar and Ghaziabad and the superintendents of police of Amroha and Bulandshahr districts, urging them to stop Rahul Gandhi at the borders of their districts.
Ghaziabad Police Commissioner Ajay Kumar Mishra told PTI, “We will not allow Rahul Gandhi to walk away as the administration has issued prohibitory orders there. The police will stop Gandhi at the UP gate.”
He said that adequate police force has been deployed at the spot.
Tension had been rife in Sambhal since November 19, when a Mughal-era mosque was surveyed on court orders as it was claimed that the Harihar temple earlier stood at that place.
Violence broke out during the second survey on 24 November when protesters gathered near the royal Jama Masjid and clashed with security personnel. Four people were killed and several others were injured in the violence.