By Sakshi Dayal
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s Rahul Gandhi is under police investigation over a scuffle between opposition members of parliament and those from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, which injured two lawmakers, police said on Friday.
Police were responding to a BJP complaint accusing Gandhi, the opposition leader, of pushing and shoving BJP lawmakers and causing injuries to two of them on Thursday as they protested outside parliament house against opposition parties.
Gandhi, the Congress party leader and scion of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty that has produced three prime ministers, already has multiple cases filed against him.
He was briefly disqualified from parliament last year after a court sentenced him to two years’ imprisonment in a defamation case. The Supreme Court suspended the conviction and he was reinstated as a lawmaker.
On Thursday, television channels showed one of the injured lawmakers being taken from the spot in a wheelchair, with a woman pressing a cloth above his left eyebrow, which she lifted briefly to reveal a bleeding wound.
Gandhi denied the allegations, saying BJP members had pushed and threatened him and tried to prevent him from entering parliament during the scuffle.
Congress party also filed a police complaint on Thursday, alleging BJP lawmakers had misbehaved against Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge.
“The first information report (FIR) against Rahul Gandhi is being investigated,” said a senior Delhi Police officer, who asked not to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
“We will be examining any footage of the incident,” the officer said. “We have also received a complaint from the Congress and are examining it. Action will be taken as required.”
The lawmakers were undergoing treatment at a hospital and were in “better condition” on Friday, doctors told news agency ANI, in which Reuters has a minority stake.
Gandhi’s sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is also a lawmaker, said on Friday the latest police probe indicated the BJP’s “desperation”.
“The entire country is seeing… they have registered multiple cases against Rahul. They take out new FIRs, lie… this shows their level of desperation,” she told reporters.
Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, asked about the Congress complaint, told a press briefing: “They are lying, trying to mislead people.”
Both houses of parliament were adjourned minutes after convening on Friday, ending a winter session disrupted several times as government and opposition parties accused each other of creating political controversies to hinder legislative business.
(Reporting by Sakshi Dayal; Additional reporting by Ainnie Arif; Editing by Sudipto Ganguly and William Mallard)
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