Bhopal: The police have registered a case against former minister PC Sharma and others when they were trying to force people to close their shops in Bittan market area on Saturday morning.
The Congressmen including the ex-minister were sent to jail on Saturday morning by the police. Youth Congress leader Manoj Shukla was also arrested. Other party leaders who have been arrested include Guddu Chouhan, Yogesh Sarathe, Vijendra Shukla, Dhanji Giri, Ashish Shrivastav, Amit Samaiyya, Mujahid Siddiqui and Happy Singh.
The Congress party has called for a statewide half-day bandh of all government and private offices and other institutions on Saturday. Former chief minister Kamal Nath on Friday had appealed to people to support the bandh called against the price hike in petroleum products.
The impact of the bandh was moderate in the state capital. Most eating joints remained closed and those that were open downed their shutters later as Congressmen came on to the streets and forced shops to down their shutters. The big markets remained closed whereas small shops situated in residential colonies operated on the sly.
The party leaders have asked the businessmen, shopkeepers to keep their establishments closed till 2 pm on Saturday. They also asked to keep private and government offices closed till 2 pm. Besides, the leaders have asked the bus, local transport, truck operators to not to run their vehicles till 2 pm. However, hospitals and emergency services functioned as usual.
