Gandhi escaped unhurt after some unidentified persons threw a stone at the car in which he was travelling, breaking the glass pane of the rear window of the vehicle. ANI photo
One person was arrested from Dhanera in North Gujarat district of Banaskantha district on Saturday in connection with the incident of stone throwing at the car of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Friday.
The car in which Rahul was travelling during his visit to the flood-affected region was attacked with stone.
“We have arrested one person named Jayesh Darji for allegedly throwing a stone at the vehicle in which Gandhi was travelling,” Niraj Badgujar, SP, Banaskantha, has been quoted as saying.
The person accused is said to be an office bearer of BJP’s local youth outfit in the area and several of his pictures with senior BJP leaders too started doing rounds on some social media platforms. However, another police official A K Jadeja, IG, Border range, was quoted to have said that they were yet to ascertain whether the person detained had any political affiliations.
Other than Jayesh, three more persons have been named in the complaint filed by Congress with the police. These include Dhanera city BJP president Modhsinh Rao and chairman of Dhanera Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) Bhagwanbhai Patel.
While Congress leaders sought inclusion of Section 307 of IPC, which include attempt to murder, Section 332 of IPC for pertaining to voluntarily causing hurt to a public servant from doing his duty, Section 337 of IPC involving causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others and Section 427 of IPC for mischief causing damage. These provisions involve a financial penalty of up to Rs 50,000 and jail term of up to three years.
Meanwhile, Congress organized protests across the state to corner BJP for the attack on their party vice president. As many as 25 Congress were detained in Rajkot as they gathered for the protest. Some persons were also detained from outside chief minister Vijay Rupani’s house in Rajkot as they had gathered there to protest.
Reports of similar protests and road blocks came in from Gandhinagar and Mahisagar districts too.