Despite the heavy security bandobust due to the ongoing Parliament session, over 200 Sikhs on Monday managed to reach Vijay Chowk and stage a protest near Parliament House against the acquittal of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in a 1984 riots case.
Seeking capital punishment for Kumar, the demonstrators squatted at Vijay Chowk, which is just a few metres away from Parliament House, blocking traffic for about an hour.
The protesters were taken into custody by the police, who, as a precautionary measure blocked Rajpath from South Block to Rashtrapathi Bhavan as well as a portion of Raisina Road and Vijay Chowk.
Traffic was also diverted causing inconvenience to commuters and several MPs were seen walking towards Parliament from Vijay Chowk as they could not take their vehicles in due to the blockade.
later in the evening, Section 144 CrPC was imposed in New Delhi area near Parliament House. An advisory issued by the Delhi Traffic Police said Rafi Marg will be closed from May 7 onwards for an indefinite period.
“General traffic, including buses, will not be allowed to ply on Rafi Marg between the Sunehri Masjid and Rail Bhawan round abouts.Motorists are advised to follow Janpath and Mansingh Road to cross Rajpath from North to South and South to North,” it said.Earlier, hundreds of Sikhs marched from Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib to the Prime Minister’s residence.
While one group reached Vijay Chowk the remaining moved to Jantar Mantar where they staged a dharna along with riot victims Jagdish Kaur, her son Gurdeep Singh, Jagsher Singh and many others.
Meanwhile, the indefinite fast of Nirpreet Kaur, who lost her father in the ‘84 riots, entered the fourth day on Monday.Kaur, has written to the Prime Minister asking him to set up a Special Investigation Team to probe the riots.
“No matter what happens I will not break my fast. I want justice, not just for myself, but for all the victims. Even if my health worsens I will continue fasting” she said.
Harsimrat Kaur Badal, MP from Bathinda, who met Nirpreet Kaur, extended full support to the protestors.Another protestor, Jarnail Singh, said: “We have been protesting for days now and protests are taking place all over the country including Surat, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Mumbai, ludhiana, Rai Bareilly, Kolkata and Raipur.
Nirpreet Kaur has been on an indefinite fast for so many days, even then, no one from the Government has communicated with us till now.”