Police intimidating Cong workers: Preneet
Thursday, 07/08/2014
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2014/20140807/punjab.htm#5
Patiala : Reiterating her demand for the deployment of Central paramilitary forces in Patiala for the electioneering period, Congress candidate from Patiala (Urban) constituency Preneet Kaur today said Congress workers and supporters were being continuously hounded and harassed by the police.
“I have noticed a large number of men maintaining a record of people and workers attending my meetings. Later on, they were selectively intimidated and threatened to withdraw from campaigning,” she said in a communication to the Chief Election Commissioner of India.
She said she had written to the commission earlier also, but nothing tangible had come out so far. Her complaint reads: “Emboldened with support of the state government and its machinery, the goons of Akali Dal, transported in from different parts of Punjab as also from Haryana, are indulging in all sorts of notorious activities, creating panic among the people of the constituency.”
“We apprehend violent clashes as threats are being issued to Congress workers by hoodlums of the ruling party at the behest of the ministers of the government camping in the constituency,” she said.
The Shiromani Akali Dal has, meanwhile, described the allegations levelled by Congress candidate Preneet Kaur against the Punjab Police as “totally false, fabricated and politically motivated” and advised the Congress to desist from levelling such allegations against the police and the civil administration without any solid evidence.
SAD spokesman Daljit Singh Cheema said the Congress had taken the role of “habitual complainant”. The SAD-BJP leaders and workers were directly approaching the people of Patiala and convincing them about the policies and programmes of the SAD-BJP government, he said.
