Jaipur: Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra, accompanied by senior party functionaries, reached the Jaipur police commissionerate Monday evening demanding registration of an FIR over the alleged assault on NSUI national secretary Ritu Barala during a recent protest in Delhi.Congress functionaries said they would not leave until the FIR was registered. Barala was also present in the police commissioner’s office.Later in the evening, former chief minister Ashok Gehlot joined party functionaries at the police commissionerate while returning from his Panchayati Raj election campaign tour of the Jodhpur division. He later left for his residence after Dotasra and other party leaders urged him to go home and rest.Barala (27), who hails from Jhunjhunu, alleged that a woman constable, identified as Chanchal Yadav, assaulted her after Delhi Police detained NSUI activists during a protest on Oct 13 near Gate No 7 of Rajiv Chowk metro station. The protesters were demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged electoral irregularities linked to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Rajasthan Congress president Govind Singh Dotasra, accompanied by senior party functionaries, reached the Jaipur police commissionerate on Monday demanding registration of an FIR over the alleged assault on NSUI national secretary Ritu Barala during a protest in Delhi. Congress functionaries said they would not leave until the FIR was registered. Barala is also present in the police commissioner’s office.
According to Barala, the constable grabbed her by the neck, pulled her hair, scratched her face and slapped her inside a detention bus. She further alleged that she was beaten with batons on her legs after being taken to a police station, leaving her bruised and discoloured.The incident prompted Opposition Leader Rahul Gandhi to meet Barala and other student activists in New Delhi on Oct 14 and introduce her case at a news conference. Later, a video surfaced in which Gandhi was shown directing Dotasra on the phone to lodge an FIR in Rajasthan.Dotasra said, “It is unfortunate that despite informing Jaipur Police Commissioner Sachin Mittal of our visit to file the zero FIR, he left the office. I have told him until the FIR is filed, we will not leave the office.”Congress functionaries present at the commissionerate included MLAs Rafeek Khan and Amin Kagzi, former cabinet minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas and Jaipur district president Sunil Sharma. The party also called on workers across the state to join the protest. By the time of filing this report, Kishangarh MLA Vikas Choudhary and workers from Dausa, Dudu and nearby areas had reached the site, while Dotasra and other Congress leaders remained at the commissionerate.
