JAIPUR: The Rajasthan police on Friday detained BJP MP Kirodi Lal Meena who was part of a protest in Jaipur by widows of soldiers killed in the Pulwama terror attack demanding jobs for families, and other issues. Meena's supporters who were along with him have been detained, too.
Videos on social media show the BJP leader lying in a hospital and looking visibly injured.
Meena has accused the police of "trying to kill him".
"The police tried to kill me, but I was saved by the blessings of the brave women, the youth, the unemployed, and the poor. I am hurt. I have been referred to Sawai Man Singh Hospital in Jaipur from Govindgarh Hospital," he said.
"I was going to visit Samod Balaji with my supporters, but the Samod police stopped me and abused and manhandled me. Is it such a big crime to stand with the brave women that the @ashokgehlot51 government is behaving like this with a public representative?" Mr Meena tweeted in Hindi along with video clips of his altercation with the police.
The widows of three CRPF jawans killed in the 2019 Pulwama terror attack have been protesting since February 28, and had launched an indefinite hunger strike six days ago outside Congress leader and former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot's house, demanding a change in rules so that their relatives and not just children can get government jobs on compassionate grounds.
Their other demands included construction of roads and installation of statues of the jawans in their villages
Hitting out at the Congress government in the state, BJP MP and former Union minister Rajyavardhan Rathore at a press conference in Delhi accused it of making false promises and insulting the country's heroes while practising politics of appeasement.
Rajasthan Police removed the widows from the protest site in the early hours of Friday and shifted them to hospitals near their respective residential areas, while their supporters were taken to a police station in Jaipur, according to police.
After a temporary detainment, they were released.
On Thursday, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot had accused state BJP leaders of "using the widows of the martyrs for their narrow political interests and thus, dishonouring them", while on the demonstrators' demands he had asked if it would be "appropriate" to give jobs to other relatives of the martyred jawans instead of their children.
BJP MP Kirodi Lal Meena, who was supporting the protest by the widows, while speaking to reporters in Jaipur, had asked, "Why is the government so afraid of three women warriors that the police picked them up overnight. The women were only pleading to meet Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot ji. Why is the chief minister so nervous to hear them?" he said.
The police action happened around 3 am when Meena had gone to his residence, one of his close aides said.
(With PTI, ANI inputs)