Ranchi, Jun 13 (PTI) Jharkhand Congress on Monday staged a dharna at the party headquarters in the Kotwali police station area, where prohibitory orders are in force, to protest against the ED for summoning Rahul Gandhi in the National Herald case.

The opposition BJP demanded legal action against workers of Congress, which is in alliance with the ruling JMM, saying that the dharna was a violation of Section 144 CrPC which was imposed by the district administration in the area to restore peace following a violent protest at city's Main Road on Friday.

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“Section 144 is imposed in Kotwali police station area. No permission for holding a demonstration was given. Then, how could Congress workers stage the dharna? Legal action should be taken against them,” BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdeo said.

After Friday's violent protest that left two people dead and many injured, the Ranchi administration imposed Section 144 of the CrPC, restricting the gathering of five or more people, in 12 police station areas of the district.

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The administration on Sunday lifted the prohibitory orders from six police station areas on Sunday.

Kotwali Police Station area is among the places where Section 144 CrPC is still in force.

Terming the BJP's allegation as “baseless”, Congress spokesperson Rajiv Ranjan said, “BJP should properly study the prohibitory law. We were staging dharna inside our party office and not on the street or in any public place. Legal action should be taken against BJP leader C P Singh who participated in ‘kirtan' along with party workers on Main Road on Friday.”

Addressing the dharna, Jharkhand Congress president Rajesh Thakur said, the Centre is “misusing its agency to intimidate opposition leaders but it will not be successful in its motive”.

BJP legislator C P Singh in a press meet on Monday alleged, “the Congress staged dharnas in the country to hide the corruption by its leaders.”

Meanwhile, family members of some persons who have been detained in connection with Friday's protest went to Lower Bazar and Kotwali Police Stations seeking their release.

They said that since Chief Minister Hemant Soren has ordered a high-level probe into the incident, police should wait for the report.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)