Lakhimpur Kheri violence: Priyanka Gandhi says arrested without notice or order

Priyanka said she was detained from a location which was not under prohibitory orders

Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi, who was arrested while on her way to Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri, on Tuesday said she was detained from a location which was not under prohibitory orders and has so far not been served with any order or notice regarding her arrest.

In a statement, she said she was placed under arrest "as verbally informed to me by the arresting officer DCP Piyush Kumar Singh" under section 151 at 4:30 am on October 4.

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When she was arrested, Priyanka said, she was traveling within Sitapur district and approximately 20 km from the border of Lakhimpur Kheri district, which was under section 144. However, she said, to her knowledge section 144 was not imposed in Sitapur.

"I was, in any case, traveling in a single vehicle with four other persons, two local congress workers, Deepender Hooda and Sandeep Singh. No security car or Congress workers other than the four persons accompanying me were with me. I was then driven to the PAC compound, Sitapur accompanied by two female and two male constables," she said.

After being brought to the PAC compound, she said there was no further communication regarding the circumstances or the reasons, or the sections under which she was charged was communicated to her "until now -- 38 hours later at 6.30 pm on the October 5".

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"I have not been served with any order or notice. Nor have they shown me an FIR. I have myself seen a portion of a paper on social media in which they have named 11 people -- eight 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 October 4 afternoon," she said.

"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," she added.

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