'Illegally confined, not allowed to meet lawyer', says Priyanka Gandhi

Sitapur (UP), Oct 5:  After the Uttar Pradesh Police formally arrested Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, she alleged that she has been "illegally confined and not allowed to meet her lawyers".

Narrating her arrest Priyanka Gandhi said, "I have been placed under arrest as verbally informed to me by the arresting officer DCP Piyush Kumar Singh, CO City, Sitapur, under section 151 at 4.30 a.m. on October 4, 2021. At the time I was arrested I was traveling within the district of Sitapur, approximately 20 km from the border of Lakhimpur Kheri which was under section 144, however to my knowledge section 144 was not imposed in Sitapur."

She said she was traveling in a single vehicle with four other persons, two local Congress workers and Deepender Hooda and Sandeep Singh. There was no security car or no other Congress workers there, she said.

"I was then driven to the PAC compound, Sitapur accompanied by 2 female and 2 male constables. Having been brought to the PAC compound, no further communication regarding the circumstances or the reasons, or the sections under which I have been charged have been communicated to me by the UP Police or administration until now, 38 hours later at 6.30 p.m. on October 5."

She alleged in her statement that she has not been served with any order or notice. "Nor have they shown me an FIR," she alleged.

"I have myself seen a paper on social media in which they have named 11 people, 8 of whom were not even present at the time I was arrested. In fact, they have even named the two persons who brought my clothes from Lucknow on the afternoon of October 4," she claimed.

"I have not been produced in front of a magistrate or any other judicial officer either. I have also not been allowed to meet my legal counsel who has been standing at the gate since morning. Presently I am not going into the details of the completely illegal physical force used on my colleagues and me at the time of my arrest as this statement serves merely to clarify the continuing illegality of my confinement at the PAC compound in Sitapur, UP." she added.