Firing near Aujla’s rally venue

Amritsar, May 18

After a firing incident outside his rally venue in Ajnala near here on Saturday, in which one person was injured, Congress candidate Gurjeet Singh Aujla has accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of creating an atmosphere of terror to win the elections.

Aujla alleged that while weapons of common people had been deposited with the police, armed persons, who came in two vehicles at his rally venue, fired shots at Lovely Kumar, a resident of Ugar Aulkah village.

Aujla was addressing a gathering when the incident happened outside the marriage palace where the rally was being held. The Congress candidate alleged that the assailants were close to Subheg Singh, who was a right hand man of AAP candidate and Cabinet Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal.

Aujla said, “Such an incident cannot take place, especially during elections when the model code of conduct is in force and all registered weapons are deposited with the police unless assailants have backing of someone powerful.”

He said, “The government should explain how these persons had weapons on them even during the ongoing election code of conduct. While goons have weapons common residents are forced to deposit their arms with the police before the election. How would people defend themselves against goons?”

Meanwhile, the police said five persons had been booked for attacking Lovely Kumar, who sustained a gunshot injury on his hand. A case under Sections 307,148 and 149 of the IPC and Section 25 of the Arms Act had been registered against five suspects identified as Varinder Singh, Bunty, Amandeep Singh, Sartaj Singh and Sukhdev Singh. The suspects came to the rally venue in a black Audi car bearing registration number CH 4781.

The police said in a CCTV camera footage of the incident Amandeep Singh was seen firing from a pistol. Though the police had not arrested anyone in this connection, officials claimed that raids were on at possible hideouts of the suspects to nab them.