Congress leaders cane-charged for throwing garbage at minister’s house in Chhattisgarh

Congress leaders and workers were cane-charged by police inside Congress Bhawan in Chhattisgarh’s Bilaspur on Tuesday for allegedly throwing garbage inside a minister’s house.

Additional superintendent of police (ASP) Neeraj Chandrakar said Congress workers threw garbage inside minister Amar Agarwal’s house and manhandled a policewoman and some male constables, following which a case was registered against them.

The party, however, said they were brutally cane-charged at the behest of the minister for protesting peacefully against him after he had allegedly referred to Congress as “garbage”.

The state urban administration minister told HT that he had never called the Congress “garbage”.

“Maine kaha kee sheher mein jo Congress ne 60 saalon mein kachara failaya hai usey hum saaf karenge (I said that we will clean the dirt that the Congress had spread in 60 years of rule). I was speaking in a function on solid waste management programme. What can I do if Congress believes that they are garbage even though I had never said that?” Agarwal said.

Senior state Congress leaders reached Bilaspur on Tuesday night and called a meeting of local leaders and decided to hold a protest in all the districts and burn effigies of chief minister Raman Singh on Wednesday.

State Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel attacked the government and police, saying it was a barbaric act. Congress alleged that even women workers and journalists were beaten up. State Congress general secretary Atal Shrivastava sustained a serious head injury in the police action, he claimed, and demanded a judicial enquiry.

Bilaspur police have registered a case against the Congress leaders for rioting, attacking public servant and other sections of the IPC.

“Congress workers tried to break the barricades and physically manhandled policemen who were trying to stop them. We registered a case and when we went to arrest them at the Congress Bhawan, they again tried to manhandle the policemen. Mild force was used to arrest the Congress workers as a case was registered against them,” said Arif Sheikh, Bilaspur SP.

(With agencies inputs)

First Published: Sep 19, 2018 01:02 IST