Amethi, December 30: Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Ajay Kumar Lallu was arrested here on Thursday while staging a protest against the state government over an incident of a 16-year-old Dalit girl being beaten up in the district.

Led by Lallu, Congress workers in large numbers started the protest demonstration from the Ramlila Maidan, which ended at the Rajiv Gandhi tri-section, where the protesters sat on a dharna. They also raised slogans against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Police subsequently arrested Lallu.

Amethi Superintendent of Police (SP) Dinesh Singh said the state Congress chief was arrested for staging a protest without permission and squatting on the road. Man Gets Life Term for Raping Minor Dalit Girl in Odisha.

In a tweet, Congress general secretary and the party's Uttar Pradesh in-charge Priyanka Gandhi Vadra had hit out at the Adityanath government over the incident and demanded the arrest of all the accused in 24 hours.

After a video clip of the Dalit girl being beaten up in a village under the Sangrampur police station in Amethi went viral on the social media, police filed an FIR against Rahul Soni, Suraj Soni and Shubham Gupta alias Sakal on a complaint from her father. The three accused were arrested and sent to jail.