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The Supreme Court on Friday said it will hear on October 26 an application by a three-month-pregnant journalist alleging that Rahul Gandhi shoved her inside the Supreme Court Registry on October 12, when he led an Opposition march to the Court to file a petition challenging the Election Commissions SIR of electoral rolls.
A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said the application would be taken up on October 26 or 27. The bench agreed to hear the matter after senior advocate Gaurav Bhatia urged the bench to list the application and clarify whether notices had been issued in the connected cases. Journalist Richa Parashar has alleged that she was manhandled by Rahul Gandhi and his security personnel while covering the protest. She claimed that the incident left her injured and resulted in a medical emergency during her first trimester of pregnancy. Recounting the incident, Parashar said she was recording the protest when Rahul Gandhi allegedly held and pulled her hand, following which his security personnel pushed her. "It is clearly visible in my video: Rahul Gandhi moves forward, and held my handand he pulled it. He pulled it, and I felt his power. He pulled, and in that same second, his guards pushed me," she said. Parashar further claimed that she fell on the stairs of the Supreme Court while requesting the people around her not to push her. She also alleged that her phone was damaged during the incident. So, I fell, the phone fell, but since the microphone was on my collar, it was recorded. I got up and was shouting, 'My microphone has fallen,' and his people were telling me, 'Hey, where did you fall?' I said, 'It's recorded on my camera. You cannot suppress a journalist. I was standing in a large crowd and could not breathe. After that, I was saying there that Rahul Gandhi pushed me. Rahul Gandhi pushed me, he was just behind me. And his people were shouting 'Rahul Gandhi Zindabad, Rahul Gandhi Zindabad' to suppress my voice, she claimed. And I was shocked because I felt that as a person, there would be someone there who would ask, 'Are you okay? Take some water, move to the side.' Someone should have said, 'Are you okay?' But no one said anything. I could not process it; I was sitting and crying. I shouted on camera, and then I started sitting and crying because, as a woman in the first trimester of pregnancy, I didn't know what the situation will be. I fell on my stomach, she added. (ANI)
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