Congress on Wednesday filed a complaint against four BJP and its alliance partner leaders, including Minister of State for Railways Ravneet Singh Bittu, for giving open threats to eliminate or cause bodily injury to Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi with the Delhi Police demanding strict action against them.
Congress treasurer and former union minister Ajay Maken filed a police complaint at the Tughlak Road police station in the national capital while accompanied by a battery of lawyers.
In his complaint to the police, Maken said mentioned the names of several BJP leaders and Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde camp) MLA Sanjay Gaikwad.
Maken mentioned that how BJP leader and former MLA Tarvinder Singh Marwah on September in a BJP event openly issued assassination threat against Rahul Gandhi.
The Congress leader highlighted that how Marwah said that “Rahul Gandhi baaz aaja, nahi toh aane wale time mein tera bhi wohi haal hoga jo teri dadi ka haal hua”, (you better behave, or you will meet the same fate as your grandmother)” (assassinated like Smt. Indira Gandhi).
Highlighting the comments of Gaikwad, alliance partner of BJP in Maharashtra, Maken said that he on September 16 publicly announced a bounty of Rs 11 lakhs for anyone who will cut the tongue of Leader of Opposition Shri Rahul Gandhi.
He also said that Minister of State for Railways Bittu on September 15, while speaking publicly to media, called Rahul Gandhi as the ‘number one terrorist of the country’.
He said, “Bittu deliberately made statement to provoke public hatred and outrage against Rahul Gandhi, with the aim to incite violence and breach of peace.
He even highlighted the.comments of Uttar Pradesh government minister Raghuraj Singh publicly speaking that Leader of Opposition is the ‘number one terrorist of India’.
Maken said that the above statements or threats issued by various BJP Leaders and its allies, calling for “assassination or bodily injury onto Rahul Gandhi and also calling the Leader of Opposition of the country a terrorist, exhibits personal hatred by the BJP and NDA alliance partners against him.
“Such utterances are made only with the aim to cause unrest among the general masses to provoke rioting, breach of peace etc. through the hate filled remarks. Rahul Gandhi has been continuously raising issues pertaining to deprived sections of the society such as women, youth, dalits and other marginalized sections etc. and the failure of the BJP to address such public centric issue.
“However, the same has not gone down well with the BJP and its allies, therefore the above-named persons have been deputed to make such hate-filled comments on the Leader of Opposition of India,” the senior Congress leader said in his complaint.
Maken also highlighted that through the said events, the leaders of BJP and its allies, “intends to jeopardizes the safety and security of the Leader of Opposition, as well as, seeks to disturb public peace throughout the country, especially in view of the ongoing elections in State of Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana”.
“Not only have the above-named persons made the statements as explained above, but also played an active role, through their associates, in spreading the same among general public through social media and other means, in order to deliberately incite public aggression or outage against Rahul Gandhi and supporters or members of the Congress, on basis of false, untrue, motivated and hate-filled statements,” he said.
“Hence, it is imperative that an FIR under relevant provisions of the BNS, 2023 be registered immediately, without any delay,” Maken demanded.
Makeb further said that it is also stated that calling the Leader of Opposition of India, a “terrorist”, “number one terrorist” etc not only undermines the public office he holds but the above-named persons deliberately seek to obstruct Rahul Gandhi in discharge of his public duties i.e. raising issues of marginalized section and failures of the incumbent government as the Leader of Opposition of the country.
“The above intentional and well thought acts of criminal intimidation, public mischief are deliberate attempts by BJP or NDA Leaders to create enmity, breach of peace, incite aggression, hatred and ill-will among the general public against the LoP Shri Rahul Gandhi, the Indian National Congress and its leaders on the instructions of top bosses of the BJP or the NDA,” Maken said.
On Tuesday, even Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the threats to Rahul Gandhi and urged him to rein in his leaders.
He also dubbed the assasination threats to Rahul Gandhi as very dangerous trend.