Case against 8 for attacking candidate in Ambala village

Ambala, November 12

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Except for one untoward incident reported from the Jansua village and arguments between supporters of candidates at various polling stations, the election went off peacefully in the district.

The Ambala and Kurukshetra districts registered a voter turnout of 80.5 per cent and 83.4 per cent, respectively. The voters had started turning up at the polling booths early in the morning.

In Ambala, of 400 panchayats, voting was held for 376 posts of sarpanch and 797 panch. Meanwhile, 24 sarpanches and 2,169 panches were unanimously elected,

In Jansua village, a candidate for the panch’s post was allegedly attacked by some people. In his complaint to the police, the injured, Shingara Singh (53), said he was contesting for the panch’s post while Manpreet Singh’s wife Lakhvinder Kaur for the sarpanch’s post. He alleged that some persons – identified as Manpreet, Harbhajan, Charan Singh, Kala, Jeet Singh, Harman Singh, Baldev and Bhupinder — were threatening the electors and getting votes polled.

“Pritam Singh of the village objected and asked them to let the people cast their vote as per their choice. But the accused held Pritam and started thrashing him. As I tried to save Pritam, Bhupinder attacked me with an iron rod and I suffered a head injury. The other accused also attacked me and threatened to kill me,” he alleged.

Both the injured were taken to a hospital for treatment.

A case was registered against eight persons under Sections 148, 149, 171C, 323, 188, 307 and 506 of the IPC at the Naggal police station.

After the incident, the security was strengthened and SP Jashandeep Singh Randhawa also visited the polling station.

Meanwhile, the police have booked 18 persons in two cases for not depositing licensed arms in view of the elections.

Ambala DC Priyanka Soni said “Tight security arrangements were made for the polls and it went off peacefully.”

In Kurukshetra, of 403 panchayats, 31 sarpanches and 2,225 panches were unanimously elected. Meanwhile, no nomination was received for 92 posts of panch. Voting was held for the posts of 371 sarpanch and 1,068 panch. The election for the Sambhalkhi panchayat was not conducted as its tenure was yet to be completed. DC Shantanu Sharma and SP Surinder Singh inspected several polling stations.