BHOPAL: The Congress plans to approach the Supreme Court after a Madhya Pradesh minister was allegedly assaulted by the police and two ministers were detained when they tried to ‘free’ a rebel MLA in Bengaluru, senior leader Vivek Tankha said on Thursday.In a hurriedly convened press conference, Tankha claimed that MLAs were kept in captivity which was being aided by the BJP leaders and the Bengaluru Police.
“A shocking incident took place just a short while ago, which proves that democracy is under attack in Bengaluru. One of our ministers, Jeetu Patwari, who went to meet one of our MLAs Manoj Chaudhary with the latter’s father, was assaulted by the Bengaluru Police. The information that we’ve is that two of our ministers — Jeetu Patwari and Lakhan Yadav — along with Manoj Chaudhary’s father Narayan Chaudhary were taken into custody by the police,” said Tankha.
“Since Patwari is a close relative of Manoj Chaudhary, who is among those legislators held captive in Bengaluru, so he went with the MLA’s father Narayan Chaudhary to meet him. Manoj Chaudhary wanted to return with his father and our ministers, but the police assaulted Jeetu Patwari.” “If the police doesn’t release the three and doesn’t act against the erring personnel, we’ll have to move the court. This incident has proved that democracy is under threat. Since the incident happened in Bengaluru, making the matter a national issue involving two states. Hence we plan to move the Supreme Court.
I’ll speak to our senior leader Kapil Sibal in the matter and subsequently take a final decision about petitioning the SC.”Tankha claimed the Bengaluru episode exposed that the Congress MLAs were held captive. “We’ll submit before the apex court that democracy is under threat and demand impartial probe and action.”Tankha and other Congress leaders showed video clippings of the alleged assault on Patwari. Later, BJP state spokesperson Rajneesh Agrawal said the allegations pertain to Bengaluru, so any response should come from the Karnataka Police only.