OROP suicide: Rahul joins protests at Jantar Mantar, detained by police

Rahul Gandhi is being taken away for his safety, says Delhi police.

New Delhi:

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi was detained by Delhi police on Thursday and taken away in police vehicle from Jantar Mantar, where he was leading a protest march against the suicide of an Army veteran Ram Kishan Grewal.

Rahul was taken away to the Tughlak Road police station and the cops said that it was done ‘for his safety’.

On Wednesday, Gandhi was detained twice and taken to different police stations as he tried meeting Grewal’s family.

70-year-old Grewal, an ex-serviceman from Haryana's Bhiwani district, ended his life on Tuesday by allegedly consuming poison on the lawns behind a government building in Janpath, the central area of the capital.

Earlier in the day mortal remains of Grewal, who committed suicide over the OROP issue, were consigned to flames as his last rites were perfumed at his native village in Bhiwani, Haryana.

OROP scheme has been a long-standing demand of nearly three-million ex-servicemen and war widows in the country. It seeks to ensure that a uniform pension is paid to defence personnel, who retire at the same rank with the same length of service irrespective of their date of retirement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while celebrating the Diwali with the army and ITBP personnel in Kinnaur, had said that the first instalment of nearly Rs 5,500 crore has been paid for implementing the OROP scheme.