UP Congress leaders protest party colleague’s arrest, held; Lallu says Yogi govt can’t stop fight for justice

Congress Uttar Pradesh unit president Ajay Kumar Lallu and Congress Legislature Party leader Aradhana Mishra were arrested on Tuesday morning along with several other party workers while they were protesting against the arrest of party colleague Shahnawaz Alam.

Congress supporters, led by the UPCC chief and CLP leader, attempted to gherao the Lok Bhawan, the office of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, when they were arrested and taken to the Kanshi Ram Eco Garden.

During his arrest, the state Congress chief said, “if we raise voice in support of farmers, poor and youth, this government is annoyed. But we can not be stopped even if they arrest us, beat us. We will continue our campaign, and we will continue raising our voice for justice.”

He further added, "It is going to be a do-or-die battle against this (BJP) government which is committing atrocities on our leaders and workers. We will fight this battle to its logical conclusion."

Alam was arrested from his residence late Monday night on the charge of involvement in the anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act protest on December 19, 2019 in Lucknow.

He was arrested after police gathered sufficient evidence against him, DCP (central) Dinesh Singh had said.

Earlier, Lallu was arrested on May 20 by the state police on charge of furnishing forged documents of buses that the party wished to use to ferry stuck migrant workers back to Uttar Pradesh.

He was arrested first in Agra for sitting on a dharna against the state authorities for non-grant of permission to run the buses. Though he was bailed out by an Agra court, he re-arrested in connection with the case filed in Lucknow regarding the documents of buses. He was finally bailed out by the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on June 16.

With IANS inputs