Police in Agra arrested Mukesh Dhangar, a Congress leader, and Anil Yadav, a party general secretary, on Monday after they spray‑painted the wall and main gate of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s ancestral home in Vijay Nagar with the slurs "Gyanesh Gaddar, Gyanesh Chor". The incident unfolded amid a larger Congress‑led protest against the CEC’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which the opposition says favours the ruling BJP. A case was registered at Hari Parvat police station and the two men were booked under the Indian Penal Code.
The defacement came as Congress workers, numbering in the hundreds, gathered early in the morning outside Kumar’s home, chanting slogans and placing stickers that accused him of looting elections. Similar protests erupted in Varanasi, Lucknow, Prayagraj, Ayodhya and other UP districts, with some participants burning an effigy of Kumar and attempting to gherao the Election Commission office in Lucknow’s Tikunia Park before being stopped by police.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Bajrang Prasad said the police were also searching for other Congress leaders who may have participated in the protest. He added that the arrested men were taken to the police lines, transported in buses, and released later that evening after a brief interrogation. A formal FIR was lodged by the police citing vandalism of a private residence.
The Youth Congress, in a post on X, called the act "treason" and vowed to punish Kumar for alleged collusion with Modi and Shah. Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and others have repeatedly accused the CEC of acting unconstitutionally, and the latest arrest is likely to intensify scrutiny of the SIR process. The case is now before the local court, where the men will be formally charged and a trial date is expected to be set within the next month.