Gujarat Assembly: Congress MLAs suspended for din over law & order issue

GANDHINAGAR: Several Congress members were today suspended from the Gujarat Assembly for a day after they disrupted the House proceedings while demanding a discussion on the law and order situation in the state.

As the Assembly session began today, Congress leader Shankarsinh Vaghela demanded a discussion on the law and order situation, citing the case of a dalit woman who was allegedly murdered in broad daylight in Ahmedabad.

Speaker Ganpat Vasava, who resumed work today after recovering from swine flu, asked Vaghela to allow the Question Hour to proceed.

After the Question Hour, Vaghela again raised the issue of the woman's murder and demanded a discussion on the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.

The Speaker said that the Opposition members should have given a notice in advance for the discussion so that the minister concerned could have come prepared on the issue.

Following Vasava's refusal to allow the discussion, nearly 30 Congress members rushed into the well of the House. They shouted slogans, threw papers and later sat in the well as a mark of protest.

The Speaker then ordered suspension of the protesting Congress members and asked the marshals to evict them from the House. The Assembly marshals evicted the protesting Congress members from the House and some of them had to be forcefully taken away.

Later, 3-4 Congress leaders who had not rushed into the well, including Vaghela, walked out of the House to protest the Speaker's action.

Notably, the body of a dalit woman, Pravina Solanki, was found on a road near Rohika village in Ahmedabad district on February 27. Police had then registered case of accidental death, but later found that she was strangulated to death by the killers of her brother and to make the offence appear as an accident, her body was thrown on the road and a car driven over it.

The woman was a complainant in the case of murder of her brother Vijay Solanki, the sarpanch of Lolia village in Ahmedabad's Bagodra taluka who was killed in a clash with members of Bharwad (cattle grazers) community in 2013.

She was allegedly kidnapped and killed after she had gone to Gujarat High Court on February 27, when the hearing of her brother's case was scheduled.

Police had yesterday arrested two youths in connection with the woman's murder.