How 200 INDIA MPs Outsmarted Delhi Police: Secret Lunch At Sagar Ratna, Surprise March To Jantar Mantar, Then Dragged To Kingsway Camp Again
New Delhi: In a high-voltage political drama that unfolded near Jantar Mantar, the Delhi Police was caught completely off-guard by the INDIA bloc on Tuesday.
With detailed inputs on how vigorously, forcefully and surprisingly the operation unfolded:
At around 1 pm, while Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge was hosting a secret lunch for nearly 200 MPs of the INDIA alliance present in Delhi at the famous Sagar Ratna restaurant located on the road going from Jantar Mantar to Janpath, the intelligence wing of what the party calls the “cruelest Delhi Police” got a whiff that something big was about to happen.
Sources said the police sensed that after lunch, the MPs would again attempt to march towards Nirvachan Sadan / Election Commission headquarters to protest against alleged voter list irregularities and SIR.
Immediately, police force was massively increased at Jantar Mantar. Barricades were reinforced, additional companies of RAF and paramilitary were rushed to Parliament Street, Jantar Mantar and around Akashvani Bhavan.
But before police could fully seal the area, in a surprising move, led by Rahul Gandhi, all 200 MPs reached Jantar Mantar in groups and staged a sudden dharna inside the premises. The police, which had been beaten and embarrassed a day before during the march from Parliament to EC office, was once again stunned.
After a brief standoff and sloganeering for nearly an hour demanding discussion on SIR and “Vote Chori”, the police, smarting from yesterday’s criticism, started a vigorous and forceful detention drive.
Eyewitnesses said policemen dragged and bundled MPs into buses. Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and several other senior leaders were forcibly picked up, put in buses and taken away. It is estimated that they have again been taken to Kingsway Camp Police Lines police station in North Delhi for legal proceedings, the same place where they were kept for 9 hours a day before.
The police action was forceful, swift and surprising to onlookers. Heavy sloganeering of “Vote Chor Gaddi Chhod” was heard as MPs were being dragged.
Rahul Gandhi was later released from detention.
