Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel was stopped by police at Lucknow airport on Tuesday after he landed there and wanted to go to meet Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who has been detained in Sitapur.

Baghel sat on a dharna at the airport and later told a news conference on Zoom: “I didn’t want to go to Lakhimpur Kheri, I was going to the Congress party office here and then to Sitapur. But the state government believes I am going to meet the (families of) victim farmers in Lakhimpur Kheri. I never saw such a scared government. Its members killed people and now fears that we would reach the spot and expose them.”

Baghel said the police prevented him by saying that Section 144 was imposed in many districts, including Lucknow.

“If Section 144 is imposed then how is the Prime Minister holding a public meeting here?” asked Baghel. “The PM is celebrating 75 years of Independence by killing the farmers and stopping the leaders from going to meet the victims’ families.”

Baghel, who landed at the airport around 1pm, left after waiting for five hours.

On Tuesday, former BJP MP of Bahraich Savitri Bai Phule was allegedly pulled by her hair and bundled into a police jeep after she attempted to meet the family members of victims in Lakhimpur. Phule had visited the villages of two deceased farmers in Bahraich on Tuesday morning and was going to Lakhimpur Kheri when she was intercepted.

Phule alleged that the police attacked her with criminal intention. “The police thrashed me, pulled me by my hair before pushing me into a jeep. I will keep trying to meet the family of the deceased farmers — two of them are from Bahraich,” she said.

Phule, who was a BJP member till 2019 and eventually formed her own Kanshi Ram Bahujan Samaj Party, has been detained at the police lines in Lakhimpur Kheri.

Additional director-general of police (law and order), Prashant Kumar, said: “We appeal to the leaders to let us maintain peace and avoid going to Lakhimpur Kheri. Those who violate the order will be stopped.”

In Meerut, six Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha leaders were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly attacking the police on Monday when they tried to prevent them from burning the effigy of chief minister Yogi Adityanath to register their protest against the Lakhimpur Kheri incident.

Vineet Bhatnagar, superintendent of police of Meerut city, said: “On Monday, some people who were trying to burn an effigy poured petrol on the policemen and tried to set them on fire. The other policemen saved them. We have registered a case against 20 people and arrested seven.”