Police yet to identify miscreants who attacked candidates, snatched papers

Five days after nomination papers for the MC election were snatched and torn, the police are yet to identify, leave alone arrest, the miscreants who had attacked the candidates, including women, and snatched their papers. As many as five FIRs were registered in this regard.

Police sources said barring one FIR, in which the documents of an AAP official candidate were snatched, none of the other four had any complainant. “The cases were registered on the basis of videos that went viral,” they said.

Senior officials said all such FIRs had been registered at the Tripuri police station and were under investigation. “We are trying to identify the victims and the accused so that they could be named in the FIRs,” said Pardeep Bajwa, SHO, Tripuri police station.

Jai Inder Kaur seeks intervention of national women commission

Four days after the BJP accused the ruling AAP MLAs Ajit Pal Singh Kohli and Chetan Singh Jouramajra of being involved in an alleged act of snatching the nomination papers of BJP women candidates for the civic polls, the president of the BJP Mahila Morcha, Jai Inder Kaur, has filed a complaint seeking immediate intervention of the National Commission for Women (NCW).

Both the MLAs have, however, slammed the allegations as baseless and accused her of trying to hog the limelight before the elections.

In a letter to the NCW chairperson, Jai Inder Kaur stated, “The incidents in Patiala where nomination papers of BJP women candidates were torn and they were physically assaulted outside the DC office are particularly alarming. Visual evidence implicated MLAs Jouramajra and Kohli.”

Jai Inder Kaur urged the NCW to constitute a team to investigate the incidents, recommend legal action against the perpetrators and direct the Punjab Women Commission to fulfil its statutory duties. TNS

On the last day of filing of nomination papers on December 13, official candidates of Opposition parties, including women, and their supporters were allegedly beaten up and their nomination files were snatched both inside and outside the Mini Secretariat complex as on-duty policemen turned mute spectators.

Pradesh Congress Committee president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring said: “The AAP government has stooped to a new low, using the administration to suppress opposition candidates and rough up women candidates.”

He condemned these acts as an attack on democracy and vowed to take the matter to the Election Commission, the High Court and the Supreme Court to ensure justice. “We demand that the MC election process be restarted in a fair and transparent manner, free from the shadow of AAP’s high-handedness. FIRs must be filed against those who attacked and humiliated our women candidates,” said Warring during his visit to the city today.

MP Dr Dharamvira Gandhi and former MLA Hardyal Kambhoj condemned the AAP tactics, calling them a blatant assault on constitutional values.