UP: Congress leader, 38 party workers booked for violating prohibitory orders

A Congress leader and 38 party workers were booked for violating prohibitory orders after they staged a protest against high electricity tariff in the state, police said on Monday.

National Secretary of All India Congress Committee (AICC) Vivek Bansal, however, said that as the agitation was organised inside a private property, they had not defied any restriction that have been enforced across the state due to the coronavirus pandemic.

According to police, the Congress workers were booked under sections 188 and 269 of the Disaster Act for holding a protest at Dharampur courtyard marriage hall on Saturday without obtaining permission.

Police said that social distancing norms were violated during the protest.

Bansal argued that the right to peaceful protest is a fundamental right in a democratic country.

By denying this right, the BJP government in the state is destroying the roots of democracy, he told the media on Monday.