Police warn against IAC’s gherao plans

Police have asked India Against Corruption (IAC) to "desist" from plans to gherao the residences of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and BJP chief Nitin Gadkari on Sunday and asked the Delhi Metro authorities to shut down six stations for 10 hours.

Prohibitory orders are in place in the New Delhi district.

The police, in a missive to the IAC, drew attention to its gherao plans and asked the members to "desist from indulging in any unlawful act which may disturb law and order".

The Delhi Metro has already announced that six stations — Patel Chowk, Central Secretariat, Udyog Bhawan, Jor Bagh, Race Course Road (all on the Huda City Centre-Jahangirpuri line) and Khan Market (on the Central Secretariat-Badarpur line) stations — would be closed for public from 8am to 6pm.

IAC had announced the gherao to protest the coal mining scam that it claimed "took place with collusion of both (the) Congress and the BJP" and demanded immediate cancellation of coal block allocation and the setting up of an independent special investigation team.

Arvind Kejriwal, a prominent IAC leader, tweeted on Saturday: "Does it mean parties and politicians r nt a threat but the people of this country r a threat to the country? (sic)"

Kejriwal’s associate Manish Sisodia told the Hindustan Times,"The police told us that if we gheraoed the residences of the Prime Minister and the BJP chief, we should be ready for strong action? In response, we have included Sonia Gandhi’s residence in our plans."

"Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code is already in place in the New Delhi district as is done when Parliament is in session," Taj Hasan, joint commissioner of police (central range) said, adding, "Adequate security would be in place."

Earlier in the day, perceived differences had cropped up between IAC members Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi over gheraoing Gadkari’s residence.