Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, DK Shivakumar taken into custody after sit-in outside PM Modi's residence

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar and several other Congress leaders were taken into police custody on Tuesday after staging a sit-in outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi's official residence. The leaders were protesting to demand Modi's resignation over the police action against students demonstrating against the alleged NEET question paper leak.

Television visuals showed police personnel carrying D K Shivakumar to a police bus as they cleared the protest site. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was also physically removed and taken to a police vehicle, while Rahul Gandhi, Congress general secretary K C Venugopal and several other Congress MPs and leaders were taken into custody.

The police action came after Union Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh met Rahul Gandhi at the protest site on Lok Kalyan Marg and urged him to call off the dharna.

The Congress leaders had marched to the Prime Minister's residence earlier in the day, accusing the Centre of unleashing "police brutality" on students during the CJP-led march to Parliament on Monday.

During the protest, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Mallikarjun Kharge, D K Shivakumar, V D Satheesan and other Congress MPs symbolically tied their hands to protest what they described as the government's curbs on democratic freedoms and to demand accountability for the police action against the students.