India's Congress Party leader Priyanka Gandhi was detained and taken to a nearby guest house in Uttar Pradesh on Friday while she was on her way to meet the members of the Gond tribe following clahes in which 10 tribal people were killed.
The police denied that she had been arrested. Priyanka Gandhi was detained at the Chunar Guest House in Mirzapur to stop her from going to Murtiya village in Sonebhadra district.
Following the detention, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi remained inside the guest house in Mirzapur on Friday and refused to seek bail. She said she should be allowed to proceed to Sonebhadra district in Uttar Pradesh where clashes took place over a land dispute on Wednesday.
Speaking to the media, Priyanka Gandhi said, "One hour ago the administration came to me and showed a piece of paper in which it was written that I was detained under Section 107 and others. I was told to give a bail bond of Rs 50,000.
"I told them that in Sonebhadra, tribals' lands were being snatched and 10 people have been killed and many others are in hospital. This is a massacre. And I have come here to meet the families of the victims. Is meeting the victims' families a crime? Meeting the aggrieved families is the duty of a political leader and not a crime."
The Congress leader arrived in Varanasi on Friday morning and met the injured persons admitted to the Trauma Centre of the Banaras Hindu University. When she proceeded towards Sonebhadra, her convoy was stopped on the Mirzapur border.
A defiant Priyanka Gandhi then squatted on the ground with the Congress workers and was later taken away in a government vehicle to Chunar. Congress leaders alleged that water and electricity was cut to the guest house after the detention.
"I have not done anything wrong and so I will not fill the bail bond. District administration and the government is free to send me to jail if they want," she said. She further said that she just wanted to meet the victims' families. "I am clear that I will meet them," she said. Her brother Rahul Gandhi assailed the move in a tweet saying it was arbitrary.
(With inputs from IANS)
