New Delhi, May 18 (ANI): Congress Party on Wednesday strongly backed its General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's allegations of farmer killings and rape by policemen in Uttar Pradesh.
Responding to a question on whether the party had any proof to back up Gandhi's allegations, Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said only a deep inquiry into the allegations could establish the truth.
"This is not a court of law. This is a delegation, which went out of concern. I find it utterly amazing that not a single BSP (Bahujan Samaj Party) leader has gone to the spot, including the Chief Minister (Mayawati). And therefore, only an enquiry will establish the truth of what happened," Natarajan told reporters here.
"It should go for forensic evidence; this is not a court of law. This is a political delegation and we believe that there are serious charges against the incident, only a thorough enquiry will determine what happened," she added.
Further clarifying Gandhi's statement, Natarajan warned the media not to quote him out of context.
"Quote him correctly. What Rahul Gandhi said was that 'there was a pile of ash, 70 feet in diameter and therefore it should be enquired into and that we have asked for a judicial enquiry'. Therefore our demand was and continues to be that the matter should be deeply probed and that there should be a judicial enquiry. We stand by that demand," she said.
Rahul Gandhi had met the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, on Monday evening to highlight the plight of farmers in Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
"I am very concerned with what is going on in villages of Noida. The situation is still pretty bad. We are confident that the Land Acquisition Bill will be passed in the next session of Parliament," Gandhi told reporters after the meeting.
"They wanted to meet the Prime Minister, so I facilitated this. Women have been raped and that there is a pile of ashes 70 feet high in the villages of Parsaul and Bhatti, which have become the epicentre of the farmers" protests. Severe atrocities are taking place there," he added.
Earlier on Thursday, the Bhatta Parsaul village in the Greater NOIDA area of Uttar Pradesh witnessed high drama following Rahul Gandhi"s arrest.
Gandhi, who spent almost 19 hours at Bhatta Parasul, was arrested under Sec 151 CrPC at around 11 p.m. on Wednesday and was taken to the Kasna police station.
He was later released on bail by the Uttar Pradesh Police and brought to Delhi.
The farmers have been agitating since January demanding higher compensation for their lands acquired by the state government.
Their demand is that only half their lands should be acquired, while the rest should be handed over to the farmers after development.
They also want 25 percent reservation for farmers in all schemes of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway.
The farmers have also been demanding that the authorities should give 120 square metre plots to landless farmers and a compensation of Rs. 5,00,000 for each acre of acquired land. (ANI)
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