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'Unprecedented': Rahul Gandhi Responds to Police Notice Over Bharat Jodo Yatra Claims

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who, according to reports, received three visits from Delhi Police in five days has responded to their latest notice against his claim that women are “still being sexually assaulted”.

News reports, including by the agency PTI, had it that Gandhi had responded with a 10-point answer and sought eight to 10 days to give a detailed response.

He also reportedly questioned Delhi Police’s sudden urgency in seeking a reply when his comments came while he was in Srinagar during the Bharat Jodo Yatra, on January 30, over 45 days ago.

In its latest visit on Sunday, a police team headed by Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Sagar Preet Hooda spoke to Gandhi at his New Delhi residence, reports said. Hooda also said that a new notice had been given to Gandhi.

“Today we’ve served a notice which has been accepted by his office and if questioning needs to be done then we will do it,” he said, according to Mint

.

In the preliminary reply, Gandhi is learned to have not responded to the substance of the notice but on how the Delhi police adopted an “unprecedented” course of action.

PTI noted that Gandhi asked whether this action had anything to do with his position in and outside the parliament on the Adani issue.

The full contents of Rahul Gandhi’s response to police are yet unavailable.

Congress has called the move by the cops a ploy to distract the party from its offensive against the Bharatiya Janata Party (under whom the Delhi police functions) over the Adani matter.

In a press conference, reported on by Indian Express, the party’s leaders Jairam Ramesh, Abhishek Singhvi, Pawan Khera and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said the attempt to “intimidate” Rahul “smacks of political vendetta”.

In the press conference, Singhvi additionally accused the Delhi Police of having “a complete lack of jurisdiction,” considering that the comments were made in Srinagar.

As The Wire has reported before, during his foot march, Gandhi had said, “There were a lot of women I met during the Yatra who were crying. They were emotional. Have you seen them? I have noticed them. They said they have been raped. They have been molested. I asked one of them, ‘Sister, should I tell this police?’ They said don’t tell this to police. Rahul Ji, we want you to know this. Don’t tell the police, we will face more harm. So, this is the truth of our country today.”

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