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Updated: Sep 30, 2019 17:09 IST

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra hit out at the UP government on Monday after her party was denied permission to hold a protest march. Congress planned a ‘Nyaya Yatra against the arrest of the law student who has accused former Union minister Swami Chinmayanand of raping her.

The police took many Congress workers, including former minister Jitin Prasada, into preventive custody while they were holding a rally ahead of the march.

Priyanka Gandhi said the BJP government is destroying democracy in the “arrogance of power”. “It (BJP government) can go to any extent to save a rape accused and suppress the voice of the daughter of Shahjahanpur,” she tweeted in Hindi.

Gandhi said the Yogi Adityanath government in UP is “nervous” and imposed Section 144 of the CrPC whenever they get to know about a protest against them.

“The voice of the people cannot be suppressed. Give justice to the girl from Shahjahanpur. Stop saving your minister,” she added.

Rahul Gandhi also tweeted and accused the BJP government in UP of standing with the “perpetrator of daughters”.

यू पी की बीजेपी सरकार बेटियों पर अत्याचार करने वाले के तो साथ खड़ी है और विरोध कर रहे कांग्रेसजन को हिरासत में ले रही है।



मगर संघर्ष की इस राह में हमारे साथी सड़कों पर डटे रहेंगे।हर दमन का सामना करेंगे।#BJPBhagaoBetiBachao pic.twitter.com/WCBHme1i7O — Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 30, 2019

After his detention, Jitin Prasada tweeted that the BJP govt has no qualms in quashing an individual’s fundamental rights and added that “UP is no Kashmir yet today”.

The UP government has said the Congress leaders were denied permission for the protest on Sunday itself to maintain “law and order” during the festival season.

The Congress had planned a 180-km march from Shahjahanpur to Lucknow in support of the law student. She was arrested on Wednesday on charges of extortion and sent to judicial custody for 14 days. She had applied for bail on the same day, but it was rejected.

The girl’s father had written a letter to Priyanka Gandhi seeking her help. “My daughter is being falsely implicated by the investigation agency due to the political clout of Chinmayanand. I request you to make the police book Chinmayanand for rape,” he said in the letter.

Chinmayanand, a former Union minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, was arrested by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the UP police on September 20. He has not been charged with rape yet. He is currently undergoing treatment at Lucknow’s Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences.

A court in Shahjahanpur is hearing bail pleas of the student and Chinmayanand, order is expected later today.