Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Rai on Friday reacted strongly to the accusations by Lucknow police that the leaders of the grand old party had tried to tamper with the evidence related to the death of worker Prabhat Pandey during the assembly siege attempt on Wednesday.

“It has been learnt through media reports that the police team investigating the death of Prabhat Pandey has accused the Congress party of tampering with evidence, which is extremely unfortunate and shameful,” Rai said on Friday.

Speaking on the issue, Rai stated that Prabhat Pandey was a member of the Congress family. “We deeply regret his untimely death. I myself attended his funeral despite the obstacles created by the police. Our national general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, Avinash Pandey, paid tribute to Pandey at the Shradhanjali Sabha organised at the UP Congress headquarters in Lucknow on Thursday,” Rai said.

He added that due to “police brutality” during the peaceful protest, he himself and Avinash Pandey, along with many workers, had been injured, and Prabhat Pandey had died.

The Congress itself was the first to demand an inquiry into his death. The state government was called upon to provide Rs 1 crore in compensation and a government job for one member of the family. Additionally, the Congress announced financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh.

Rai said that they had been cooperating in the investigation since the first day of the incident and were accepting whatever the police said as true.

“At midnight of the incident, the police expressed their desire to see the crime scene, which we immediately accepted. The police inspected the crime scene at night and asked to seal it, we accepted that too. On the evening of the incident itself, the police had taken all the CCTV recordings in a pen drive. But even after that, they expressed their desire to take the DBR at night, and we cooperated and handed over the DBR to them,” Rai pointed out, adding that they were cooperating with the police in the process of recording the statements of the office and Congress workers.

“However, the truth is that there are many people who were not present at the time of the incident. The police want to record their statements as well. We agreed to this and cooperated with them,” Rai claimed.

He stated that the truth behind the matter, which the police are spreading as a lie in the media, is that the mattresses brought from the tent house were laid where Prabhat Pandey was found unconscious.

“After sending Pandey to the hospital, the tent house owner came and took them away as a routine procedure. Until then, there was no indication that such an incident would occur. As soon as we got the news of Prabhat Pandey’s death, we left everything as it was and cooperated fully with the police investigation. The Congress is a party that believes in law and the Constitution. We are cooperating fully from our side, but the police, under pressure from the Yogi government, are trying to give a political hue to this unfortunate incident,” Rai said.

He added that it was clear that the way the police were deliberately propagating things in the media during an incomplete investigation suggested they were working under some pressure. He reiterated his allegation that Pandey died due to police brutality, and the police were trying to protect themselves while the Yogi government was attempting to politicise the matter.

“We strongly condemn this and demand a fair investigation,” Rai added.