9 BJP leaders booked after protest outside police station

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 14

The city police today booked nine BJP leaders, including Jalandhar district president Ramesh Sharma, BJP candidate from Ward 78 Ravi Mahendru and Mohinder Bhagat, under non-cognisable and non-bailable offences for allegedly causing public mischief outside the Basti Bawa Khel police station on Wednesday night.

According to Police Commissioner Praveen Sinha, a case under Sections 143, 149, 186 and 505(1) of the IPC has been registered against the party leaders, who held up the police station for many hours. Besides naming Sharma, Mahendru and Bhagat, the police have also named BJP leaders Amit Taneja, Sheetal Angural, Pradeep Khullar and two others in the FIR.

“They kept shouting and interrupting policemen in performing their duties for hours. They even blocked the main gate causing lot of inconvenience to the public. We will file a chargesheet against the erring party leaders and produce it tomorrow in the court,” said Sinha.

The case was registered after the supporters of BJP candidate Ravi Mahendru and Congress candidate Jagdish Samrai clashed outside a supporter’s house on Wednesday night. According to BJP district president Ramesh Sharma, the supporters of Samrai had surrounded the vehicles of Mahendru’s supporters and began to poke them.

On the contrary, Samrai had alleged that BJP supporters had slapped him and tried to threaten his voters in the area. Later, on receiving a call from Congress MLA Sushil Rinku, the police rushed to the spot and brought the BJP supporters to the police station.

While the BJP leaders had accused the police of illegal detainment for hours, the police instead had booked them for causing public outrage and causing inconvenience to public.

Meanwhile, the BJP has also written letters to the Election Commission of India, state Election Commission and Punjab Governor VP Singh Badnore against the alleged connivance of the police with Congress leaders.