OROP suicide: Held in police van for 2 hours, Rahul released by Delhi cops

New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, who was detained on Thursday and prevented from marching to India Gate to protest the suicide of ex-serviceman Ram Kishan Grewal, was released after two hours.

Rahul was leading a candle light march organised by the Delhi Congress unit from Jantar Mantar to India Gate when police personnel restrained him and whisked him away on a van.

"They (police) have kept me in this car for more than half an hour and are not letting me go," Gandhi said.

Further stating that the police detained him after invoking Section 144, which empowers a magistrate to prohibit an assembly of more than four people in an area, Gandhi added that he has not been informed as to what the police intends to do.

"Yesterday the family of the deceased veteran were treated miserably right in front of me. They were dragged and abused I am outraged by that as this affects the morale of our soldier protecting us on the borders. I want the Centre to apologise to the family," he added.

A police official said the action was taken keeping Rahul's security in mind as the crowd at Jantar Mantar was swelling by the minute.

"All we can say is that this is no democracy," said Congress leader Manish Tewari.

"Day by day the Modi government is showing its true face. All Rahul Gandhi and other Congress party workers did today was lead a peaceful march. This is the third time he has been detained in two days. We had given a notice to Delhi Police informing them about the march. This is nothing but a clear case of bullying," Congress leader Randeep Surjewala said.

On Wednesday, Gandhi was detained twice and taken to different police stations as he tried meeting Grewal’s family.

70-year-old Grewal, an ex-serviceman from Haryana's Bhiwani district, ended his life on Tuesday by allegedly consuming poison on the lawns behind a government building in Janpath, the central area of the capital.

Earlier in the day mortal remains of Grewal, who committed suicide over the OROP issue, were consigned to flames as his last rites were perfumed at his native village in Bhiwani, Haryana.

OROP scheme has been a long-standing demand of nearly three-million ex-servicemen and war widows in the country. It seeks to ensure that a uniform pension is paid to defence personnel, who retire at the same rank with the same length of service irrespective of their date of retirement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while celebrating the Diwali with the army and ITBP personnel in Kinnaur, had said that the first instalment of nearly Rs 5,500 crore has been paid for implementing the OROP scheme.