NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday claimed that they have not violated any rules and rejected claims of any purported route deviation by them on the first day of its Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Jorhat, Assam, and alleged that the FIR registered was politically motivated.
Congress leaders criticised the Assam police for registration of an FIR in the eastern Assam district against ”security personnel (of Rahul Gandhi) and others”, claiming that if any barricade was broken, it was done by party leaders.
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A suo motu FIR was registered at Jorhat Sadar police station on January 18 for alleged route deviation by the yatra as it moved through the main town.
Addressing a press conference here, party in-charge of Assam Jitendra Singh said, ”I was present at the ‘padyatra’ (foot march) that day. There were a large crowd in the area and when we reached a trijunction, we proceeded on a straight road.
”If anyone broke any barricade, it was politicians like me, Jairam Ramesh, Gaurav Gogoi, Bhupen Borah, Debarata Saikia. Why has the FIR been lodged in the name of security personnel, workers?” he questioned.
Assam Congress chief Bhupen Kumar Borah, reading out a part of the FIR, said it named KB Byju and ‘unknown others’ of instigating others to break the police barricade and proceed.
The Congress also showed a video of the incident claiming that no violation of rules was done.
Borah said he along with other leaders was in the front and wanted to clear any kind of confusion on the Yatra route.
”When we reached the trijunction and were confused with the route, we asked police personnel who pointed to one of the three roads leading away from that point. We proceeded on the route pointed to us,” Borah said, claiming that it was he and the leader of the opposition in the state assembly Debabrata Saikia who were leading the rally.
”We had prepared the route plan and KB Bjyu had nothing to do with it or fixing the route. The FIR is an attempt to malign the yatra,” he asserted, saying the FIR has been registered to defame him.
”This FIR has been registered as part of a conspiracy for political reasons,” he alleged.
Bjyu is a former SPG personnel, who currently looks after the security arrangements of Gandhi. AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh said three more days of the Yatra are left in Assam and the Yatra is traversing the same route as travelled by BJP chief J P Nadda.
He said even the Bajrang Dal took out a bike rally on the same route in Guwahati, which they plan to move on.
Jitendra Singh also said that the cases and impediments created for the Yatra are all out of ”frustration” of the chief minister who wants to ”scare them”.
”People of Assam are showering their love and affection on Rahul Gandhi and also the Yatra, which is for everyone to see. The way FIR was registered is it showed the CMs cowardice as well as of Assam police,” he said.
Source: Press Trust of India
