BJP Workers Face Charges for Altercation Outside Congress Office in Ahmedabad

The offence was registered hours after the opposition party threatened to begin a protest. The BJP had protested outside the Congress office on Tuesday over alleged anti-Hindu remarks by Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi. The Gujarat Congress president threatened to launch a protest claiming that police were not registering an FIR against BJP workers even after evidence established their involvement in the attack. Rahul Gandhi may visit Ahmedabad on July 6 and meet Congress workers who stood their ground when stones were hurled at them.

The state unit of the party has extended an invitation to Gandhi and was confident that he would accept. A clash broke out between BJP and Congress workers outside Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan, Congress’s state headquarters, on Tuesday, during which five policemen, including an Assistant Commissioner of Police, were injured. Two FIRs were registered, and five Congress workers were arrested under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for various offences. Later, police registered another FIR against 15 BJP workers and a mob of 100 to 150 persons, based on a complaint filed by the working president of the Gujarat Congress.

The FIR named local Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, Shehzad Khan Pathan, and fellow party workers as accused, in addition to a mob of Congress and BJP workers. It was alleged that Congress workers charged at BJP activists and, when police tried to stop them, the mob started throwing stones and wooden sticks towards BJP activists.