At least seven Congress workers were injured on Tuesday in lathi charge by police in Chhattisgarh's Bilaspur city after the party workers allegedly threw garbage inside a minister's house.
The opposition party claimed that its workers were carrying out a peaceful protest against Urban Administration Minister Amar Agrawal, but they were brutally beaten up by police.
Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Neeraj Chandrakar claimed that Congress workers threw garbage inside the minister's house and also manhandled a policewoman and some male constables, following which a case was registered against them.
The protesters then went to the district Congress office and staged a sit-in, the police officer said.
When police tried to arrest them, Congress workers again got into scuffles with police, so "mild force" was used to arrest the workers against whom the case had been lodged, Chandrakar said.
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At least 52 Congress workers were arrested and seven of them sustained injuries in the process, the ASP said.
Some police personnel including a woman constable also sustained injuries, he added.
A case under IPC sections 147 (rioting), 186 (obstructing government servant in discharging duty) and 353 (assault against public servant) was registered against Congress workers, he added.
Congress leaders said the protest was against the minister's recent statement where he allegedly referred to the opposition party as "kachra" (garbage).
Chhattisgarh Congress president Bhupesh Baghel and others called the lathi charge as a barbaric act of the BJP government.
"Police deliberately dragged and beat up party workers....even the journalists who were inside the Congress office were thrashed by police," Baghel alleged.
State Congress general secretary Atal Shrivastava sustained a serious head injury in the police action, he claimed, and demanded a judicial enquiry.
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