Pune: Rahul Gandhi on Thursday termed as “wrong” the police firing on agitating farmers in Mawal in Pune district as he visited the families of those killed in the incident and joined a prayer meeting.
Making an unscheduled visit to a cluster of villages in the area, the AICC General Secretary met the families of the victims – Shyamrao Tope at Sadawali village, Moreshwar Sathe at Shivrane village and the family of Kantabai Thakar at Yelse village.
Condoling the death of farmers in police firing on August 9, Gandhi said, “What had happened was wrong”, a release from the Youth Congress quoted him as saying.
He also joined a prayer meeting being held for the farmers killed in the firing.
Three farmers were killed and many others injured when Pune Rural Police allegedly opened fire on a protest against a closed pipeline project that facilitates supply of water from Pavna dam to the industrial township of Pimpri Chinchwad in Mawal taluk on August 9.
Gandhi, after calling on relatives of the deceased, visited a hospital where the injured in the firing incident were undergoing treatment, they said.
Pune city Congress president Abhay Chhajed said he was “unaware” of Rahul’s programme. No Congress leader from the city was accompanying him, he said. Gandhi’s visit came in the backdrop of the Opposition Shiv Sena-BJP combine criticising the Congress leader for not visiting the farmers.
Clarifying his late visit to Maval, Gandhi said he was in the US with his mother AICC President Sonia Gandhi, who recently underwent surgery there and was still in hospital. (Ageencies)
