Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was Friday detained and stopped from going to Sonbhadra where 10 people were gunned down this week, triggering a standoff with the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh.
Refusing to furnish a personal bond, Gandhi stayed put at a guesthouse in Mirzapur district where she was taken after she squatted on the road with her supporters, insisting that she be allowed to proceed and meet the victims' families.
In a late-night tweet, she said she is ready to go to jail if she is not allowed to go ahead.
The district magistrate and the superintendent of police were talking with her at the guesthouse in Chunar to persuade her against travelling ahead, Deputy Inspector General Piyush Kumar Srivastava told PTI.
Chunar sub divisional magistrate Satya Prakash said Gandhi was under preventive detention and had refused to furnish a personal bond.
On Twitter, the Congress general secretary said she had been under arrest for the past nine hours.
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She claimed that the administration has told her that she will be sent to jail for 14 days if she doesn't furnish a bail bond of Rs 50,000.
She said she considered paying bail immoral in this situation. If the government wants to put me in jail for the crime of meeting victims, I am totally prepared for that, Gandhi tweeted in Hindi.
Uttar Pradesh Congress Legislature Party leader Ajay Kumar Lallu, who was with her at the guesthouse, told PTI, "We have clearly said, either let us meet the victims or send us to jail."
Terming the action against his sister "illegal arrest", Rahul Gandhi said, "This arbitrary application of power reveals the BJP government's increasing insecurity in UP."
Asked to comment, UP Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma told reporters, "Whether it is the ruling party or the opposition, everyone's collective responsibility is to ensure that the situation does not aggravate further."