Delhi Police impose prohibitory orders under Section 144 in and around protest venue
NEW DELHI: Top INDIA bloc leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Sharad Pawar, Uddhav Thackeray, Akhilesh Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav will attend AAP’s ‘Maharally’ to be held here on March 31, senior party leader Gopal Rai said on Friday.
AAP has received permission of the authorities concerned for holding the rally, being held in the backdrop of Delhi CM Kejriwal’s arrest, at the Ramleela ground on Sunday for an attendance of more than 20,000 people, he said.
The call on whether Arvind Kejriwal’s wife Sunita Kejriwal will address the ‘Maharally’ will be taken later, he said.
Other prominent political leaders and members of the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) like Derek O’Brian, Trichi Siva, Farooq Abdullah and Jharkhand Chief Minister Champai Soren will also attend the rally, he said.
Kalpana Soren, the wife of former Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, who is currently in jail, will also attend the rally, he said.
Delhi fortified for INDIA bloc protest
Multiple layers of barricades have been set up and a large number of police personnel deployed on roads leading to the BJP headquarters here in view of opposition INDIA bloc’s protest on Friday against the arrest of AAP convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Besides police personnel, those of paramilitary forces have also been stationed at many places in Central Delhi, including on the DDU Marg and around the ITO area.
Kejriwal, who is in the Enforcement Directorate’s custody, was arrested by the agency on March 21 in the Delhi excise policy-linked money laundering case.
The AAP on Thursday had said members of the bloc will demonstrate against CM Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest as well as on the electoral bonds issue at the BJP headquarters on DDU Marg.
The Delhi Police said prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), which bars large gatherings, have been imposed at the DDU Marg and its nearby areas.