Uttar Pradesh Congress Chief Ajay Rai on Thursday attended the last rites of the Congress worker Prabhat Pandey who lost his life during the party's protest near the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Wednesday.
"I am being stopped by the police from coming here. The workers have made me come here through the lanes. I have come here only to pay my homage... We are standing with the family of the worker. The way the police is restricting me shows their involvement in the death of Prabhat Pandey. The police have put barricades all over the place just because of the pressure from the government.... the police should investigate this matter and the culprits should be punished...Congress people have not done any sloganeering. We have just come here to pay our homage..."Rai said speaking to ANI. Earlier, Rai had alleged that the state government and police officials were responsible for the death of the worker. He demanded compensation of 1 crore for the victim and a government job for one of the kin of the deceased. Speaking at a press conference, Ajay Rai said, "The Congress has announced an ex-gratia of 10 lakh for Prabhat Pandey and we demand a compensation of Rs 1 crore from the state government for killing the worker and a government job for one of the family member of the deceased." "Today a very sad incident happened - we had decided to do 'gherao' of the state Assembly. But when we left from here (Congress state headquarters) for the Assembly, barricades and barbed wires were installed to stop us. During the protest, one of our workers, Prabhat Pandey died as the police beat him," he further said. He demanded action against the police officers responsible for the alleged attacks on the Congress workers."Prabhat Pandey told our two workers - Ashish Kesari and Junaid Iqlam Qureshi that the police had beaten him. When he came to the office and lay down, he fainted... He was taken to the hospital where he was declared dead... This is an inhuman incident... A similar incident has happened in Assam too," he said. (ANI)
|