Several Youth Congress workers were detained on Wednesday following a scuffle with police personnel during a protest against the arrest of the party's Karnataka leader D K Shivakumar.
The protesters raised slogans against the government and burnt effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah outside the Indian Youth Congress' office in central Delhi.
While police barricaded the road leading to Parliament, a number of protesters tried to break through and jostled with police personnel.
"A number of protesters were detained, forced into two buses and taken to Parliament Street and Mandir Marg police stations," Youth Congress' media in-charge Amrish Ranjan Pandey said. He claimed that some of the protesters were injured in police lathicharge and were hospitalised.
A senior police official, however, said 66 protesters have been detained but there was no use of force against them.
Youth Congress President, Srinivas BV, said, "The BJP government is targeting opposition leaders to divert attention from real issues of unemployment and economic downturn."
Srinivas, who met Shivakumar at Ram Manohar Lohia hospital here on Tuesday night, said the Karnataka Congress leader's health has "deteriorated due to the harassment he was subjected to over the last few days".
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The court should take cognisance of Shivakumar's health, he said.
"First Chidambaram and now Shivakumar. Arrests are being made without proper investigation and proper evidence. The BJP is indulging in vendetta politics," Srinivas alleged.
The ED arrested Congress' troubleshooter from Karnataka D K Shivakumar here on Tuesday in connection with a money laundering case following repeated questioning over the past few days.
The former Karnataka cabinet minister and sitting MLA from Kanakapura seat appeared before the central probe agency for questioning for the fourth time on Tuesday at its headquarters in Khan Market here.
After a long session of grilling, Shivakumar was arrested under provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), officials said, adding the agency wants the Congress leader to be put through custodial interrogation and hence he was arrested.
Soon after his arrest, tweets put out from his handle termed the cases against him "politically motivated" and took a dig at "BJP friends" for being "successful in their mission of arresting" him.
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