Lucknow, Jun 16 (PTI) Several Congress workers on Thursday were detained while marching towards the Raj Bhavan here as a mark of protest against the quizzing of party leader Rahul Gandhi by the Enforcement Directorate.

The Uttar Pradesh Congress had on Wednesday given a call of “Raj Bhavan gherao” against Gandhi's questioning and police action at the party's central headquarters in Delhi.

Also Read | Ketaki Chitale Case: Marathi Actress Gets Bail in One Case; Challenges Arrest in Bombay High Court.

Police, which had put up barricades at the UPCC office here, stopped the Congress workers from marching towards the Raj Bhavan and took several of them into custody as they tried to climb over the barricades amid sloganeering.

"Hundreds of party workers and leaders including national spokesman Akhilesh Pratap Singh, vice president of state unit Vishva Vijay Singh, senior leaders Virendra Madan, Dwijendra Tripathi, Mukesh Chauhan along with party workers were taken to the Eco garden in buses from the party office," Congress digital media convenor and spokesman Anshu Awasthi claimed.

Also Read | Australia: Victoria and New South Wales Introduce Extra Year of Early Education.

He said the Congress' legislature party leader Aradhana Mishra and convenor of communications department Naseemuddin Siddiqui were not allowed to move out of their respective houses since the morning and kept under house arrest in view of the “gherao” programme.

"The BJP government is gagging the voice of democracy. What can be more immoral than police barging into the Congress' central office and beating up the party workers, and when the partymen here try to protest against it, they are not allowed to even raise their voice against arbitrary action," Awasthi said.

The Uttar Pradesh Congress had given a call for “Raj Bhavan gherao" to protest the continued questioning of former party president Rahul Gandhi by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case.

Siddiqui had on Wednesday said the manner in which Gandhi is being tortured by the ED at the behest of the BJP will not be tolerated,

Senior Congress leader and MP Pramod Tiwari, while talking to newspersons here on Thursday, said Gandhi, who has been the president of a national party, is constantly being called to the ED office.

Alleging that the ED is deliberately harassing him, Tiwari said how can Gandhi be accused of non-cooperation when he is going whenever asked by the ED.

The BJP government is acting out of vendetta and this needs to be condemned by all, he said.

(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)