In yet another dramatic turn of events in Madhya Pradesh, the Congress on Thursday alleged that cabinet ministers Jitu Patwari and Lakhan Singh, who were trying to meet rebel MLA Manoj Choudhary, were assaulted and arrested by Karnataka Police.
In a hurriedly convened press conference, Rajya Sabha MP and legal expert Vivek Tankha charged that Patwari, who is also a relative of Choudhary and the MLA's father Narayan Choudhary, wanted to meet him at a private resort.
“Manoj Choudhary was willing to come back with his father, but the police intervened, assaulted our ministers and Narayan Choudhary, who is ex-zilla panchayat president, and have arrested them,” Tankha alleged.
“This is murder of democracy, and soon I will speak to Kapil Sibal (Congress leader and prominent lawyer) and we might approach the Supreme Court as this is inter-state criminal matter,” Tankha said.
He demanded that the Bengaluru Police should immediately release the ministers being arrested following the direction of BJP, which is the ruling party in Karnataka.
A series of videos, showing Patwari's showdown with the police, and the cabinet ministers and Narayan Choudhary being herded into police van, were released to the media. In one of the videos, Narayan Choudhary is seen saying they were being treated like criminals.
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Manoj Choudhary is among the three MLAs who resigned separately. Interestingly, his resignation was among the three that were handed over on Thursday to Assembly Speaker N.P. Prajapati, again by former BJP minister Bhupendra Singh.
Choudhary and another MLA were reportedly kept in a separate resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru. The 19 other MLAs are put up in another resort. Heavy security had been posted outside these resorts, sources said.
Former chief minister Digvijaya Singh, who had earlier in the day alleged that the MLAs were being held captive, was also present at the press conference and reiterated that unless MLAs personally appeared before the speaker to confirm their resignations, floor test cannot happen.
Political watchers said the videos and the incident in Karnataka might be used by the Congress to prove that at least some of the MLAs who had resigned during past three days, were under some duress and thus their resignations sent through BJP leaders cannot be held valid.
