The Indian National Congress on Wednesday filed a police complaint against three Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and a Shiv Sena MLA for issuing threats to Rahul Gandhi.
“There should be a first information report against these four,” Congress Treasurer Ajay Maken said after filing the complaint at Tughlak Road Police Station in Delhi.
One of the leaders named in the complaint is Tarvinder Singh Marwah, who allegedly said at a BJP event on September 11: “You [Rahul Gandhi] better behave, or you will meet the same fate as your grandmother [Indira Gandhi].”
Former prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated on October 31, 1984, at her residence the capital. She was shot dead by her Sikh bodyguards in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, which involved military action inside Amristar’s Golden Temple in June that year.
The Congress said this was an “openly issued assassination threat against Rahul Gandhi” and alleged “a well-planned criminal conspiracy…to commit the above acts.”
A few days later, he stirred controversy again by threatening to "bury Congress dogs" who attempted to attend an event with Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
The complaint by Congress also mentions Sanjay Gaikwad, the Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Maharashtra’s Buldhana, who on Monday “announced a bounty of ₹11 lakh for anyone who will cut the tongue of Rahul Gandhi.”
Union Minister Ravneet Bittu has also been named in the complaint. On Sunday, Bittu allegedly described Rahul Gandhi to reporters as “the number one terrorist of the country.”
The Congress alleged that a nearly identical statement was made on Monday by Uttar Pradesh minister Raghuraj Singh.
The Opposition party provided the police with links to videos of the statements.
“The threats issued by various BJP leaders and its allies, calling for assassination and/or bodily injury onto Rahul Gandhi and also calling the Leader of Opposition of the country a terrorist, exhibits personal hatred by the BJP/National Democratic Alliance partners against Gandhi and such utterances are made only with the aim to cause unrest among the general masses to provoke rioting, breach of peace etc, through the hate-filled remarks,” read the party’s complaint.
