Rahul marches to CBI HQ, detained; hits out at Modi

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday courted arrest after staging a protest outside the CBI headquarters in the national capital against the government’s move to divest CBI director Alok Verma of his powers and send him on leave. Other Opposition parties, including the TMC and the CPI, also joined the march in a show of solidarity.

The Congress president and senior leaders of his party spent around 30 minutes with the cops as hundreds of party workers demonstrated outside Lodhi Colony police station.

“Every institution in India is being ruined by the Prime Minister,” Mr Gandhi said.

He said that the Congress will not allow the “chowkidar” (watchman) to do “chori” (theft) as he reiterated his charges of corruption against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he had “deposited Rs 30,000 crore in Anil Ambani’s pocket”.

“He has stolen money from the Indian Air Force and the youth, and the entire country understands this. The Prime Minister can run but he cannot hide from the truth,” Mr Gandhi told reporters after stepping out of police station.

Carrying placards against the Prime Minister, the protesters walked the distance with scores of police personnel maintaining vigil and camera crews jostling with each other to capture the moment. One protester carried a placard depicting the “CBI in a cage”.

Mr Gandhi got on to a truck in front of the police barricades put up ahead of the CBI headquarters in the CGO complex to prevent the marchers from reaching the building. About 130 protesters, including Mr. Gandhi, Ashok Gehlot and Bhupinder Hooda, were detained, sources said.

Earlier, leaders from the Trinamul Congress, Left parties and other parties joined the Congress march from Dyal Singh College in central Delhi’s Lodhi Road area to the CBI headquarters, 4.2 km away. Loktantrik Janata Dal leader Sharad Yadav, CPI’s D. Raja and TMC’s Nadimul Haque represented their parties, said a party leader.

In simultaneous protests, the Congress held demonstrations outside CBI offices across the country.

AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot had asked all Congress general secretaries, state unit chiefs and legislature party leaders to hold demonstrations against the BJP government.

“An illegal, unconstitutional and illegitimate removal of the CBI director by the Modi-Shah duo has shamed India and its premier investigative agency. The Prime Minister is experiencing ‘Rafale-o-Phobia’ and this terror of the Rafale scam has led to the demolition of the CBI,” it said.