Netta D’Souza, a top official with the opposition All India Congress Committee (AICC) party, was arrested Tuesday for spitting on female police officers during a rancorous protest against the investigation of party member Rahul Gandhi for money laundering charges.

At least 800 members of AICC – commonly known as “India Congress” or simply “Congress” – have been arrested for demonstrating against the investigation of Gandhi, who has been accused of laundering AICC funds through a shell corporation to buy assets from Indian publishing company Associated Journals Limited (AJL).

AJL is renowned as the former publisher of a newspaper called the National Herald that played a role in India’s drive for independence from the United Kingdom. The case against Gandhi is often referred to as the “National Herald investigation.”

Gandhi and most of his party colleagues dismiss the long-running investigation as a political persecution orchestrated by the ruling BJP party. Protests broke out last week when Gandhi was summoned to answer new questions about the case by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), India’s top financial crimes agency.

D’Souza is the acting president of the All India Mahila Congress, the women’s wing of the AICC party. She was marching in a Delhi protest against the National Herald investigation on Tuesday when she got into a physical altercation with female police officers. The police charged her for “obstructing and assaulting the police personnel on duty,” including spitting on them.

The Delhi protest was especially large and vigorous because the participants were also demonstrating against Agnipath, a new hiring plan for India’s armed forces that will greatly reduce the number of career military positions. 

Agnipath infuriated some Indians because they see military careers as their best chance to secure high compensation and good benefits – precisely the reasons the government wants to save money by trimming them back. The Indian government seems to have underestimated the size and ferocity of the protests, which have produced considerable property damage and at least one fatality.

D’Souza was caught on video spitting on the police, a clip BJP members have been passing around online as they demand disciplinary action against the AICC leader:

The comments in the tweet above about “beating up cops in Assam” and “holding their collar in Hyderabad” refer to other recent clashes between AICC members and the police. In the Hyderabad incident, senior AICC leader Renuka Chowdhury grabbed an officer by the collar and dragged him around for a few moments while she delivered a tirade:

D’Souza told India’s Times Now News on Tuesday she only spit at the police because they had beaten her to the ground, and she was trying to clear some “mud” from her mouth.

“I am in total pain. I was brutally hit. There was mud in my mouth. I couldn’t get into the bus, I just removed the mud from my mouth? Should I just swallow mud and mouth?” she complained.

Chowdhury similarly claimed she only grabbed a police officer by the collar because she had a “problem with my leg” and was “losing my balance.”

“I don’t know that young man, of course, I’ll apologize to that man. But I expect the police to apologize to me for manhandling us. Why were there so many policemen around us?” she said.

Rahul Gandhi was questioned by ED for over 11 hours on Monday, his fifth day of questioning in the National Herald case. The Deccan Herald reported on Tuesday that his questioning appears to be over for now.

At a meeting of AICC legislators on Wednesday, Gandhi predicted Prime Minister Narendra Modi would withdraw the Agnipath military recruitment plan under intense public opposition. He criticized the plan for weakening India’s armed forces while Chinese forces are “sitting on our land” in the Himalayas.

“They used to talk of ‘one rank, one pension’, now they have come up with ‘no rank, no pension,’” he quipped.

Gandhi compared the Agnipath controversy to the outcry against three farm lass passed in 2020 and repealed after a year of vigorous protests.

“I had said about farm laws that Modi would have to take them back and he did. Now, the Congress is saying Modi will have to withdraw the Agnipath scheme and all the youth are with us on this,” Gandhi said.