CAA row: Priyanka Gandhi accuses UP police of brutality

The Congress leader alleged that the cops had entered a 'madrasa' in Muzaffarnagar and and picked up minor students

Congress general secretary, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Saturday accused the Uttar Pradesh police of 'brutalising' innocent people and arresting minors in connection with the violence during protests against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act in the state last month.

Priyanka made a sudden visit to Muzaffarnagar and Meerut, which had witnessed large scale violence during the CAA protests, and met the families of those killed in alleged police firing, and also those arrested by the cops. On her visit, she said that the state police had not lodged FIRs on the complaints of the victims' families.

''The police have not yet given them (families) the postmortem reports of the deceased,'' she added. The Congress leader alleged that the cops had entered a 'madrasa' (Islamic Seminary) in Muzaffarnagar and thrashed a cleric and picked up minor students. ''They (students) are still in jail,'' she said.

''The cops ransacked the home of a girl, whose wedding was to take place next month. Her family says that the police looted the valuables,'' Priyanka told reporters in Muzaffarnagar.

''The job of the police is to provide justice. What we are seeing here is exactly the opposite. We have no objection to police action if someone has done something wrong,'' she said adding that her party would extend all possible help to the affected families.

The 47-year-old opposition leader said that the Congress had sent a letter to the state governor Anandiben Patel in which it had furnished the details of the alleged police atrocities. Earlier, Priyanka had visited Bijnore, where she had met the families of the two youths, who were killed in alleged police firing.