The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today alleged that there was "jungle raj" in Punjab and paraded 58 persons claiming that they are victims of Congress' "oppression".
"Punjab is descending into jungle raj under the Congress government because its leaders were unleashing terror against political opponents," SAD leaders Daljit Singh Cheema and Bikram Singh Majithia said here.
Both the leaders presented 58 persons who they claimed are alleged victims of Congress "oppression" before media here.
The two leaders said there was a clear cut pattern to "punish" people who had voted against the Congress by registering non-bailable cases against them.
"Many such cases have come to the notice of SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal during his 'jabar virodhi lehar' visit to Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency recently. But we feel this is a pan-Punjab epidemic," they said.
The two leaders said that they will not let this conspiracy succeed. "We will present the entire list of cases as well as victims before the state police chief," they said.
They urged the police chief to act in a non-partisan manner and give justice to the victims and also take action against SHOs who are "dancing" to the tune of Congress leaders and "implicating innocents in false cases".
Majithia said that if this is not done, then they will approach courts and demand a CBI inquiry into the entire list of politically motivated cases being registered under the Congress regime.
He alleged that in Tarn Taran, Congress "goons" supported by local legislator Ramanjit Sikki had forcibly taken possession of 16 kanal of land belonging to an Army jawan who is posted in Jammu and Kashmir.
Majithia alleged even wards of freedom fighters were not being spared with one such person, a resident of Madhir village in Muktsar district, being "tortured in lock up" at the insistence of Congress legislator Amarinder Raja Warring.
"The only fault of the young person was that he had given an application detailing how the pond in his village had been encroached by Congress workers," he said.
He said this case and many others were endemic of the manner in which Congress MLAs and constituency in-charges were terrorising their political opponents.
However, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had been maintaining that his government is not implicating political opponents in false cases.
Later in the evening, a SAD delegation submitted a list of "false politically motivated cases" registered at the instance of Congress leaders in Gurdaspur parliamentary constituency to Punjab police chief Suresh Arora and asked him to get all these cases examined so that justice could be served to the victims of Congress "repression".
The delegation, which included Cheema, Majithia, Suchha Singh Langah and Lakhbir Singh Lodhinangal, told the DGP that Congress leaders were "misusing" the police force at the lower level to get cases registered against their political opponents.
Arora assured the delegation that he would get all the cases looked into "immediately".
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)