Pardeep Luthra , BATALA : A resident of village Lukmania under Kotli Surat Malhi police station was injured, when a akali sarpanch of the village fired at him during a clash outside village, here today.
The family of former sarpanch Angeraj Singh was supporting congress party and he had supported Congress candidate from Gurdaspur, Partap Singh Bajwa during the recent Lok Sabha election, which created a politically rivalry with the local SAD leaders.
and before the Lok Sabha election, he was pressurized by the akali leaders to join SAD but he denied and on April 30 during the voting, when his servant, Gulam Masih went to the booth to caste his vote, akali leader and village sarpanch, Harbajan Singh along with his family members assaulted him and forced him to caste his vote in favour of SAD-BJP candidate Vinod Khanna but due to the presence of the paramilitary forces, the tension was defused.
Today morning, when his nephew, Gurwinder Singh was going to Wadala Banger grain market to sell his yield,where he was stopped by Harbhajan Singh, his son Sukhwinder Singh and nephew, Jagdeep Singh, who mercilessly beaten him with sharp edged weapons.
Getting information about the attack on Gurwinder Singh, when Anrej Singh along with his nephew, Paramjeet Singh and Ranjit Singh were going to Wadala Banger, they were stopped outside the village by Harbajan Singh and his supporters, who under a well planned program attacked them with sharp edged weapons.
When they tried to show some resistance, Jagdeep brought out a pistol and handed it over to Harbajan Singh, who started firing at them during which his nephew, Paramjeet Singh was hit at his stomach and was rushed to civil hospital at Batala.
Seeing the serious condition of Paramjeet Singh, the doctors rushed him to Amritsar, where his condition was stated very critical.
In this regard, District Congress Committee President and Congress MLA from Dera Baba Nanak, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa told that on march 24, seeing numerous incidents of threatening by the akali workers, in which he specifically mention that the police department was adopting a pick and choose policy while depositing the weapons of all opposition parties leaders and not that of SAD-BJP leaders and their party workers. He also mention a list of about one and half dozen akali leaders of Dera Baba Nanak, who were roaming freely in his constituency with their fire arms and was pressuring the voters to vote in favour of ruling party.
On the basis of the letter, Chief Election Commissioner ordered for the transfer of the SHO of Dera Baba Nanak, Sukhdev Singh.
He further told that on April 30, he again sent a SMS to Chief Election Officer and District Returning officer cum Deputy Commissioner, Gurdaspur and told them about high possibility of violence in his constituency. He told that foreseeing his violence, he called DSP, Dera Baba Nanak many a times but the officer did not pick his phone.
Demanding immediate registration of case against the accused and their immediate arrest, Randhawa also demanded dismissal of SHO, Kotli Surat Malhi for grave misconduct under the service rule for not getting the weapons deposited inspite of implementation of model code of conduct.
When contacted SSP, Batala, Harjinder Singh Sandhu, he told that the police had registered a case under section 307 IPC against Harbajan Singh and told to take rest of the details of the case from SHO, Kotli Surat Malhi police station. When questioned about the fire arms used by the miscreants, he told that out of the total of 6987 license weapons in Batala police district, the police was able to deposit 6966 weapons and the pistol used in this incident was illegal.