Male cops entering women's rooms 'wrong': Priyanka Gandhi on Palakkad hotel raid

Wayanad (Kerala): Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday condemned a police search of female Congress leaders' hotel rooms in assembly bypoll-bound Palakkad, calling it "wrong."

"It was wrong for male policemen to enter women's rooms in the middle of the night under the pretext of a hotel raid," Priyanka told the Asianet news channel.

As the UDF candidate in the Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll, Priyanka was responding to a query regarding the police raid on the hotel, which followed suspicions of black money being brought there.

Her statement comes amid a political storm in Kerala, where the ruling CPI(M) has called for an investigation after CCTV footage showed a Congress worker arriving at the hotel with a trolley bag.

The Congress-led UDF has accused the left party of releasing the footage to the media and has lodged a complaint with the Election Commission of India, alleging that the CPI(M) misused the police machinery in a "pre-planned operation."

Meanwhile, BJP state president K Surendran alleged that the police helped Congress leaders move black money from the hotel.

The police conducted searches on Wednesday, including in hotel rooms where prominent Congress women politicians, such as Bindu Krishna and Shanimol Usman, were staying.

The Election Commission had earlier postponed the Palakkad Assembly bypoll from November 13 to November 20, citing the Kalpathi Ratholsavam festival.

The bypoll was necessitated after Congress MLA Shafi Parambil of the constituency was elected to the Lok Sabha from Vadakara.