Cong protests against SAD councillor

Nikhila Pant Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 17

Members of the SC/ST Cell of the Congress on Sunday protested against SAD councillor Rajinder Singh Sidhu. The protesters, headed by the cell chairperson Rajni Bala, raised slogans against the councillor, who has been booked and arrested on charges of abetment of suicide.

The protesters also raised slogans against the Police Department and accused it of booking the councillor only on charges of abetment of suicide and demanded that he be booked on charges of rape of the Dalit girl who committed suicide.

They argued that the post-mortem report of the deceased had confirmed that she was pregnant when she committed suicide and Sidhu shouldn’t be let off.

Demanding justice for the deceased and her family members, the protesters urged Union Minister and SAD leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal to stand up for the cause of women, rise above party lines and get justice for the family of the girl.

They also asked the minister to make sure that Sidhu was relieved from all his official duties, designation and party membership, apart from the post of president of Singh Sabha Gurdwara.

SAD councillor from Ward Number 3, Sidhu was arrested on May 29 in an abetment of suicide case on the complaint of another SAD councillor Tarloch Singh, a relative of the deceased woman.

Sidhu was arrested after an audio clip of him purportedly talking to the victim surfaced on the social media after the woman committed suicide by consuming poison.

She was reportedly found three-month pregnant. Sidhu was booked under Section 306 of the IPC, following which the court sent him in 14-day judicial custody.