UP: 9 Cong workers held for assaulting BJP MP

They beat me up and tore my kurta, he had said.However, the Congress refuted the charges leveled by the BJP MP and demanded a judicial inquiry into the matter.

Nine Congress workers have been arrested for allegedly assaulting BJP's Pratapgarh MP Sangam Lal Gupta, police said on Wednesday.

Acting on a complaint by Gupta, his security officer, and party workers, police had lodged five cases against Congress leader Pramod Tiwari, MLA Aradhana Misra, and their supporters.

During the 'Garib Kalyan Mela' held in Sangipur block auditorium here on Saturday, a scuffle had broken out between workers of the BJP and Congress. Based on video footage and eyewitness accounts, nine people were identified and arrested for attacking the MP, Sangipur SHO Tushardutt Tyagi said.

Gupta had accused Tiwari, an ex-Congress MP, of leading a mob of his party workers to beat him up and his party's activists during the government function.

The BJP MP alleged that the incident took place when he and his party workers reached the venue, where Tiwari was sitting on the dais.

''Seeing me, Tiwari and his supporters first began hooting at me and BJP workers accompanying me. Later, they grew violent and attacked us. They beat me up and tore my kurta,'' he had said.

However, Congress refuted the charges leveled by the BJP MP and demanded a judicial inquiry into the matter.