Panaji, Oct 1 (IANS): The Congress in Goa on Thursday condemned the alleged police manhandling and arrest of the opposition party's former president Rahul Gandhi and general secretary Priyanka Gandhi near Hathras in Uttar Pradesh where they were to meet the family of a 19-year-old Dalit girl who was gangraped and murdered.

"We strongly condemn the manhandling and arrest of our former president Rahul Gandhi by BJP government using UP police, when he and our general secretary Priyanka Gandhi were on their way to Hathras to meet family of victim of the 19-year-old girl who was brutally raped and murdered by the goons of UP," Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar said in an official statement.

"Today, in BJP raj sharing grief has become a crime in India. The voice of an outraged nation can't be suppressed with high-handedness," Chodankar also said, condemning the police treatment of the Gandhi siblings and other party workers.