DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday appealed to the Election Commission to provide protection to police and civil officials in the Shahkot assembly constituency for a free and fair bypoll. In a memorandum to the EC, SAD spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema said the manner in which the station house officer of Mehatpur in Shahkot, who booked Congress candidate Hardev Singh Laddi, was allegedly harassed by the state government, it had “demoralised” the entire official machinery in Shahkot.

Cheema said, “The treatment meted out to Mehetpur SHO Parminder Bajwa by the Congress government has demoralised the police as well as civil machinery in Shahkot and unless remedial action was taken by the EC, free and fair election was not possible in the constituency.” Cheema said the Congress government had sent a “clear message” to officials that in case they did not “toe the party’s line”, they would also meet the same fate as the Mehatpur SHO. “In case the EC does not move immediately to ensure protection of all these officers in Shahpur the entire election process will become a farce,” Cheema said.

“SHO Parminder Bajwa was awarded with the DGP’s Commendation Disc by the Jalandhar Police on January 22 this year for his outstanding policing achievements. It was understandable that the same police officer was vilified as mentally unstable solely because he registered an FIR against the Congress candidate,” as per memorandum submitted by the SAD.

The party also demanded arrest of Laddi.

A delegation of Akali Dal comprising senior leaders Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa , Balwinder Singh Bhunder, MaheshInder Singh Grewal, Daljit Singh Cheema and Naresh Gujral will visit the Election Commission officer in Delhi tomorrow to submit a detailed memorandum on the prevailing circumstances in the Shahkot assembly constituency which is going to polls on May 28.

(editor@dailyworld.in)